അ൪ബേനിയയില്
ജനിച്ച് ഇന്ത്യ പ്രവ൪ത്തന കേന്ദ്രമാക്കി ഉപവിപ്രവ൪ത്തനങ്ങളിലൂടെ
ലോകശ്രദ്ധനേടിയക്രൈസ്തവ സന്യാസിനിയായിരുന്നു മദർ തെരേസ (യഥാ൪ത്ഥ പേര്: ആഗ്നസ് ഗോംക്സ് ബൊയാക്സ്യു, ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 26,1910 - സെപ്റ്റംബ൪
5, 1997) മിഷണറീസ്
ഓഫ് ചാരിറ്റി എന്ന കത്തോലിക്കാ സന്യാസിനീസഭ സ്ഥാപിച്ച് കൊല്ക്കത്തയിലെ
പാവപ്പെട്ടവരുടെയും അനാഥരുടെയും രോഗികളുടെയും ഇടയില് പ്രവ൪ത്തിച്ച മദ൪ തെരേസയ്ക്ക്
പ്രസ്തുത സേവനപ്രവ൪ത്തനങ്ങളുടെ പേരില് 1979-ല് സമാധാനത്തിനുള്ള നോബല്പുരസ്കാരം നല്കപ്പെട്ടു.
ജന്മംകൊണ്ട് അ൪ബേനിയനും,
പൗരത്വം കൊണ്ട് ഇന്ത്യനും, ജീവിതംകൊണ്ട്
കത്തോലിക്കസന്യാസിനിയുമാണ് താനെന്ന് മദ൪ തെരേസ പറയുമായിരുന്നു.
Facts
Born: August 26, 1910, Skopje, Republic of
Macedonia
Historical Importance of Mother Teresa:
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity,
a Catholic order of nuns dedicated to helping the poor. Begun in Calcutta,
India, the Missionaries of Charity grew to help the poor, the dying, orphans,
lepers, and AIDS sufferers in over a hundred countries. Mother Teresa's
selfless effort to help those in need has caused many to regard her as a model
humanitarian.
Mother Teresa Also Known As: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu
(birth name), "the Saint of the Gutters"
Overview of Mother Teresa:
Mother Teresa's task was overwhelming. She started
out as just one woman, with no money and no supplies, trying to help the
millions of poor, starving, and dying that lived on the streets of India.
Despite others' misgivings, Mother Teresa was confident that God would provide.
Birth and Childhood
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, now known as Mother Teresa,
was the third and final child born to her Albanian Catholic parents, Nikola and
Dranafile Bojaxhiu, in the city of Skopje (a predominantly Muslim city in the
Balkans). Nikola was a self-made, successful businessman and Dranafile stayed
home to take care of the children.
When Mother Teresa was about eight years old, her
father died unexpectedly. The Bojaxhiu family was devastated. After a period of
intense grief, Dranafile, suddenly a single mother of three children, sold
textiles and hand-made embroidery to bring in some income.
The Call
Both before Nikola's death and especially after it,
the Bojaxhiu family held tightly to their religious beliefs. The family prayed
daily and went on pilgrimages annually.
When Mother Teresa was 12 years old, she began to
feel called to serve God as a nun. Deciding to become a nun was a very
difficult decision. Becoming a nun not only meant giving up the chance to marry
and have children, it also meant giving up all her worldly possessions and her
family, perhaps forever.
For five years, Mother Teresa thought hard about
whether or not to become a nun. During this time, she sang in the church choir,
helped her mother organize church events, and went on walks with her mother to
hand out food and supplies to the poor.
When Mother Teresa was 17, she made the difficult
decision to become a nun. Having read many articles about the work Catholic
missionaries were doing in India, Mother Teresa was determined to go there.
Thus, Mother Teresa applied to the Loreto order of nuns, based in Ireland but
with missions in India.
In September 1928, 18-year-old Mother Teresa said
goodbye to her family to travel to Ireland and then on to India. She never saw
her mother or sister again..jpg)
Becoming a Nun
It took more than two years to become a Loreto nun.
After spending six weeks in Ireland learning the history of the Loreto order
and to study English, Mother Teresa then traveled to India, where she arrived
on January 6, 1929. After two years as a novice, Mother Teresa took her first
vows as a Loreto nun on May 24, 1931.
As a new Loreto nun, Mother Teresa (known then only
as Sister Teresa, a name she chose after St. Teresa of Lisieux) settled in to
the Loreto Entally convent in Kolkata (previously called Calcutta) and began
teaching history and geography at the convent schools.
Usually, Loreto nuns were not allowed to leave the
convent; however, in 1935, 25-year-old Mother Teresa was given a special
exemption to teach at a school outside of the convent, St. Teresa's. After two
years at St. Teresa's, Mother Teresa took her final vows on May 24, 1937 and
officially became "Mother Teresa."
Almost immediately after taking her final vows,
Mother Teresa became the principal of St. Mary's, one of the convent schools
and was once again restricted to live within the convent's walls.
"A Call Within a Call"
For nine years, Mother Teresa continued as the
principal of St. Mary's. Then on September 10, 1946, a day now annually
celebrated as "Inspiration Day," Mother Teresa received what she
described as a "call within a call." She had been traveling on a
train to Darjeeling when she received an "inspiration," a message
that told her to leave the convent and help the poor by living among them.
For two years Mother Teresa patiently petitioned
her superiors for permission to leave the convent in order to follow her call.
It was a long and frustrating process. To her superiors, it seemed dangerous
and futile to send a single woman out into the slums of Kolkata. However, in
the end, Mother Teresa was granted permission to leave the convent for one year
to help the poorest of the poor.
In preparation for leaving the convent, Mother
Teresa purchased three cheap, white, cotton saris, each one lined with three
blue stripes along its edge. (This later became the uniform for the nuns at
Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.) After 20 years with the Loreto order,
Mother Teresa left the convent on August 16, 1948.
Rather than going directly to the slums, Mother
Teresa first spent several weeks in Patna with the Medical Mission Sisters to
obtain some basic medical knowledge. Having learned the basics, 38-year-old
Mother Teresa felt ready to venture out into the slums in December of 1948.
Founding the Missionaries of Charity
Mother Teresa started with what she knew. After
walking around the slums for a while, she found some small children and began
to teach them. She had no classroom, no desks, no chalkboard, and no paper, so
she picked up a stick and began drawing letters in the dirt. Class had begun.
Soon after, Mother Teresa found a small hut that
she rented and turned it into a classroom. Mother Teresa also visited the
children's families and others in the area, offering a smile and limited
medical help. As people began to hear about her work, they gave donations.
In March 1949, Mother Teresa was joined by her
first helper, a former pupil from Loreto. Soon she had ten former pupils
helping her.
At the end of Mother Teresa's provisionary year,
she petitioned to form her own order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity. Her
request was granted by Pope Pius XII; the Missionaries of Charity was
established on October 7, 1950.
Helping the Sick, the Dying, the Orphaned, and the
Lepers
There were literally millions of people in need in
India. Droughts, the caste system, India's independence, and partition all
contributed to the masses of people that lived on the streets. India's
government was trying, but they could not handle the overwhelming multitudes
that needed help.
While the hospitals were overflowing with patients
that had a chance to survive, Mother Teresa opened a home for the dying, called
Nirmal Hriday ("Place of the Immaculate Heart"), on August 22, 1952.
Each day, nuns would walk through the streets and bring people who were dying
to Nirmal Hriday, located in a building donated by the city of Kolkata. The
nuns would bathe and feed these people and then place them in a cot. These
people were given the opportunity to die with dignity, with the rituals of
their faith.
In 1955, the Missionaries of Charity opened their
first children's home (Shishu Bhavan), which cared for orphans. These children
were housed and fed and given medical aid. When possible, the children were
adopted out. Those not adopted were given an education, learned a trade skill,
and found marriages.
In India's slums, huge numbers of people were
infected with leprosy, a disease that can lead to major disfiguration. At the
time, lepers (people infected with leprosy) were ostracized, often abandoned by
their families. Because of the widespread fear of lepers, Mother Teresa
struggled to find a way to help these neglected people. Mother Teresa
eventually created a Leprosy Fund and a Leprosy Day to help educate the public
about the disease and established a number of mobile leper clinics (the first
opened in September 1957) to provide lepers with medicine and bandages near
their homes. By the mid-1960s, Mother Teresa had established a leper colony called
Shanti Nagar ("The Place of Peace") where lepers could live and work.
International Recognition
Just before the Missionaries of Charity celebrated
its 10th anniversary, they were given permission to establish houses outside of
Calcutta, but still within India. Almost immediately, houses were established
in Delhi, Ranchi, and Jhansi; more soon followed.
For their 15th anniversary, the Missionaries of
Charity was given permission to establish houses outside of India. The first
house was established in Venezuela in 1965. Soon there were Missionaries of
Charity houses all around the world.
As Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity expanded
at an amazing rate, so did international recognition for her work. Although
Mother Teresa was awarded numerous honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize in
1979, she never took personal credit for her accomplishments. She said it was
God's work and that she was just the tool used to facilitate it.
Controversy
With international recognition also came critique.
Some people complained that the houses for the sick and dying were not
sanitary, that those treating the sick were not properly trained in medicine,
that Mother Teresa was more interested in helping the dying go to God than in
potentially helping cure them. Others claimed that she helped people just so
she could convert them to Christianity.
Mother Teresa also caused much controversy when she
openly spoke against abortion and birth control. Others critiqued her because
they believed that with her new celebrity status, she could have worked to end
the poverty rather than soften its symptoms.
Old and Frail
Despite the controversy, Mother Teresa continued to
be an advocate for those in need. In the 1980s, Mother Teresa, already in her
70s, opened Gift of Love homes in New York, San Francisco, Denver, and Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia for AIDS sufferers.
Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Mother
Teresa's health deteriorated, but she still traveled the world, spreading her
message.
When Mother Teresa, age 87, died of heart failure
on September 5, 1997, the world mourned her passing. Hundreds of thousands of
people lined the streets to see her body, while millions more watched her state
funeral on television. After the funeral, Mother Teresa's body was laid to rest
at the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata.
When Mother Teresa passed away, she left behind
over 4,000 Missionary of Charity Sisters, in 610 centers in 123 countries.
After Mother Teresa's death, the Vatican began the
lengthy process of canonization. On October 19, 2003, the third of the four
steps to sainthood was completed when the Pope approved Mother Teresa's
beatification, awarding Mother Teresa the title "Blessed."
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