Teresa, Mother

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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.

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