Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa 1910-97, Roman Catholic missionary in India, winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, b. Skopje (now in Macedonia) as Agnes Goxha Bojaxhiu. Of Albanian parentage, she went to India at 17, becoming a nun and teaching school in Calcutta (now Kolkata). In 1948 she left the convent and founded the Missionaries of Charity, which now operates schools, hospitals, orphanages, and food centers worldwide. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003.

Bibliography: See her writings in In My Own Words (1996, comp. by J. L. González-Balado) and her letters in Come Be My Light (2007, ed. by B. Kolodiejchuk).

Teresa, Mother ( Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) (1910–97) Macedonian Roman Catholic missionary. She began her missionary work as a teacher in Calcutta, India. In 1948 the Vatican granted her permission to leave her convent in order to tend the homeless, starving, and sick in Calcutta's slums. In 1950 she established the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, which subsequently extended to other countries. She received the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. In 2003, Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul II.