This paper is an examination of the life, works, and impact of Mother Teresa, founder of the Missionaries of Charity, an order of the Catholic Church based in Calcutta, India, which is dedicated to caring for the poor and the dying of all religions. Born to a middle-class family in what is now Macedonia, the former Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu became a nun when she was 18, dedicating her life to work among the poor of India. At 36, she felt called to leave her orders and found her own congregation to minister to the most desperately ill. Her work gradually came to international prominence, and, in 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Although she was hailed throughout the world as a living saint, she also attracted critics for her complete acceptance of the doctrines of the church, including her total opposition to abortion and birth control. In the final years until her death in September of 1997, she became a controversial figure in some circles, but the good she accomplished is undeniable, and her work goes on through the hundreds of missions she established throughout the world.
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born on August 26, 1910, in the city of Skopje in Yugoslavia. Some sources cite her date of birth as August 27; she observed later that this was actually the date of her baptism. After she became internationally famous, the government of the Republic of Macedonia, formed after she left to minister to the poor in India, publicly claimed her as Macedonian. However, she always described herself as Albanian.
Her parents were Nikola Bojaxhiu, a building contractor and wholesale food importer, and Dranafile Bernai. Agnes, known to her family by her middle name of Gonxha, was the youngest of three children. At her birth, the family was well off, but, when Gonxha was 9, her father died suddenly. Her family and the doctors were convinced he had been poisoned by enemies of his political views. His death forced her mothe...