Mother Teresa

Her childhood and family

    Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, to an Albanian family. Her real name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. 'Gonxha', meaning 'flower bud', was her pet name in their native language because, as her brother once explained, "She was pink and plumb". You may not know the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, but you must have heard the name Mother Teresa. Her father, Koke, was a businessman and involved in Albanian politics. He travelled a lot. Her mother, Drana, looked after Agnes was nine years old, her father died. Her mother had to raise the children all alone. She worked hard to educate them. She taught them to help the poor and the needy.

Her education and training

    As Agnes grew up, she helped a priest in this work. She read a lot about the work of missionaries in India. When she was twelve, she felt that she would be happy spending her life helping people less fortunate than herself.

At the age of eighteen, Agnes decided to join the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto who were doing a lot of good work in India. On September 25, 1928 she left her family and friends to go to Dublin (in Ireland) where the Loreto Sisters were based. She learnt to speak English and received religious training there. She took the name Sister Teresa. On December 1, 1928 she started on the long journey to India. She reached Kolkata in January 1929 and then travelled to Darjeeling to complete her training.

Beginning days of her career

    Two years later, she was sent to help the Sisters by working in a hospital She was touched when she saw the sick, starving and helpless people. She also became a teacher. The children loved her. They started calling her 'Ma', meaning Mother. That is how she came to be called 'Mother' by everyone. 

She taught history and geography for some time in school in central Kolkata. But she could not ignore the people living in the slums. She had been taught charity by her parents and she knew that it was her responsibility to take care of the poor. She wanted to live among them and serve them. 

In August 1948, she left the Loreto Sisters. She was thirty eight years old. She now started wearing a cheap, white sari with a blue border. She went to Patna to train as a nurse. This medical training would help her prevent and cure diseases.