Mother Teresa was a humanitarian. This means she did things to help out other people. Her entire life was fully devoted to helping the poor, the sick, the needy, and the helpless. She was born in Uskub, Ottoman Empire on August 26, 1910. Her birth name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Her father died when she was eight and she was raised by her mother. She was raised as a Roman Catholic and decided to devote her life to God at a young age. She joined the Sisters of Loreto at the age of 18 to become a missionary to India. She first had to learn English, so she went to Ireland to learn English at the Loreto Abby. A year later she started her missionary work in Darjeeling, India. She learned the local language, Bengali, and taught at the local school. She soon took her first vows as a nun and took the name Teresa. She would teach for many years in India becoming the headmistress at a school in eastern Calcutta.
At 36 years, she felt the call from God to help the poor of India and she received some basic medical training to help the sick and needy. She had very little support and, while trying to feed and help the poorest of the poor, she herself was constantly hungry and even had to beg for food.
Soon other women joined her and she formed the Missionaries of Charity to take care of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and no one cares for them. The Missionaries of Charity originally had 13 members. Today they have over 4,000 nuns who care for people just like Mother Teresa described all over the world.
She worked almost up until her death on September 5, 1997.
Fun Facts
- It is impossible for most people to lick their own elbow. (try it!)
- A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
- A shrimp’s heart is in its head.
- In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand, or attempted to do so.
- It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
- The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is believed to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
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