Mother Teresa was a citizen of the whole world because she genuinely aspired to help people everywhere. She was a role model of Charity, Compassion, Holiness and Selfless Service.
Mother Teresa felt that her fight would have to be against poverty, disease and ignorance. She started to serve poor and helpless people. In 1948, Mother Teresa felt compelled to leave the convent. She devoted herself exclusively to working with the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Mother Teresa went regularly with food and medicine and started teaching the slum children. Mother Teresa replaced her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blur line when she started venturing in the slums.
In 1948, she acquired Indian Citizenship. She founded the order of Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta and established the motherhouse on Acharya Jagdish Bose Road. In 1950, She got permission from the Vatican to start the missionaries of charity. The mission was to care for the hungry, the homeless, the crippled and all those who felt unwanted, and uncared for throughout society. She opened a Leprosy Ashram at Titagarh. She opened a home for orphans and abandoned children. Mother Teresa founded ‘Shishu Bhavan’ for the helpless children. In 1982 during the siege of Beirut, she rescued 37 children trapped in a hospital by hammering out a temporary cease fire between the Israeli army and the Palestinian guerillas.
Mother Teresa expanded her work by establishing 750 centers in 250 countries. They are running various orphanages, AIDS hospices and charity centers all around the globe. She founded branches in many parts of the world like Jordan, England, U.S.A, Africa. In 1971, she also opened a home for rape victims in Bangladesh. In 1988, she sent her missionary of charity to Russia where they opened a home for AIDS patients. By 2007 the missionaries of Charity numbered about 450 brothers and 5000 sisters’ worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.
She raised her powerful voice against abortion, contraception and divorce. She received many national and International awards for her humanitarian work.
In 1962, she received ‘Padma Shri’ from the Indian government. While receiving the Nobel Prize, Mother Teresa said, “I chose the poverty of our poor people. But, I am grateful to receive it in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, and the blind. Also all these people who feel unwanted, uncared for throughout society and that people who have become a burden to society”.
Mother Teresa suffered her first heart attack while meeting Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1983 and the second nearly fatal in 1989. At the age of 87, on September 5th 1997, Mother Teresa died. Her life inspired people the world over, believers and non-believers, rich and poor, the unknown and the famed alike.
Mary Pinheiro