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Mother Teresa - A True Mother: Part 1 of 2

© Katie Anne Gustafsson

Mother Teresa - A True Mother: Part 1 of 2

She spread love and compassion around the world, but from humble beginnings how did this ordinary woman become such an international symbol of goodness and charity towards humanity?

"Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately it is not fashionable to talk with them." - Mother Teresa

Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhui in August 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia, the amazing woman who would become Mother Teresa, lived by this quote she was to make many years later. Losing her father at an early age, she was guided by her mother who stitched to raise money to keep her three children in food and clothes but who also found time to help the poor and needy people who lived nearby. When her mother was unable to do this charitable work, Agnes undertook it for her and so began her life of serving others.

Although most of the community around them were Muslim, Agnes's family are regular church-going Catholic, and as she grew up she spent some of her spare time helping out the local priest who had problems with the language. As she became older, she realised that she might have a vocation within the Church. Although she raises the issue at the age of 12, she is 18 before she finally sets off down the road towards her destination of missionary work in India.

From her "Mother House" in Dublin, (where she took the name Teresa) she was sent first to Darjeeling where she was taught to teach, and then from there she was sent to Calcutta to teach history and geography. Living in Calcutta she was very conscious of the poverty of the everyday people that surrounded her, despite the middle class background of the girls she taught. Her childhood upbringing of helping the poor came to the surface and she knew that this is where she wanted to work. At first she worked with the Legion of Mary who went out amongst the poor and sick, but her desire to do more for them increased. During a retreat to Darjeeling, she heard God's voice and her calling was given. She was to leave the convent and live amongst the poor she wished to help. The Church was not sure that this was a wise decision, a European sister living amongst the slums was a dangerous proposition. Sister Teresa as she was then known prayed and continued her assault on the Church to be allowed to follow her calling and in 1948 authorisation was given.

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