Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa (1988)
Born	August 27, 1910 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Died	September 5, 1997 (age 87)
Occupation(s)	Roman Catholic nun, humanitarian

Mother Teresa (born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu IPA: [ˈagnɛs gɔnˈʤa bɔˈjaʤiu]) (August 27, 1910 – September 5, 1997), was a Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. For over forty years, she ministered to the needs of the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying in Kolkata (Calcutta).

As the Missionaries of Charity grew under Mother Teresa's leadership, they expanded their ministry to other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary, and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge.

Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

Early life

Mother Teresa was born on 27 August, 1910, Skopje, which today is capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Agnes was raised as a Roman Catholic by her Albanian mother after her Aromunian Orthodox Christian father died when she was about eight years old. According to a biography by Joan Graff Clucas, during her early years, Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service and by the time she was twelve, she was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life.She left her home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. Agnes would never again set eyes on her mother or sister.

Agnes initially went to the Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland in order to learn English, which was the language the Sisters of Loreto used when instructing school children in India. Arriving in India in 1929, she began her novitiate in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains. She took her first vows as a nun on 24 May, 1931. At that time she chose the name Teresa after the patron saint of missionaries. She took her solemn vows on 14 May, 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in eastern Calcutta.

Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. A famine in 1943 brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak of Hindu/Muslim violence in August 1946 plunged the city into despair and horror.

Missionaries of Charity

On September 10, 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith." She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her long, traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border and then venturing out into the slums." Initially she started a school in Motijhil; shortly thereafter, she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. Her efforts quickly caught the attention of Indian officials, including the Prime Minister, who expressed his appreciation.

Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. Teresa experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. She recorded in her diary:

Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.

File:HomeForTheDying-Calcutta.jpg

Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying in Kolkata (Calcutta).

Teresa received Vatican permission on October 7, 1950 to start the diocesan congregation that would become the Missionaries of Charity. Its mission was to care for, in her own words, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." It began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta; today it has more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, and charity centers worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine.

In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying in space made available by the City of Calcutta. With the help of Indian officials she converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the poor. She renamed it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday). Those brought to the home received medical attention and were afforded the opportunity to die with dignity, according to the rituals of their faith; Muslims were read the Quoran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received the Last Rites. "A beautiful death," she said, "is for people who lived like animals to die like angels — loved and wanted." The quality of care offered to terminally ill patients in the Homes for the Dying has been criticised in both The Lancet and the British Medical Journal.

She soon opened a home for those suffering from Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy, and called the hospice Shanti Nagar (City of Peace). The Missionaries of Charity also established several leprosy outreach clinics throughout Calcutta, providing medication, bandages and food.

As the Missionaries of Charity took in increasing numbers of lost children, Mother Teresa felt the need to create a home for them. In 1955 she opened the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.

The order soon began to attract both recruits and charitable donations, and by the 1960s had opened hospices, orphanages, and leper houses all over India.

Mother Teresa's order started to grow rapidly, with new homes opening throughout the globe. The order's first house outside India was in Venezuela, opened in 1965 with five sisters. Others followed in Rome, Tanzania, and Austria in 1968; during the 1970s the order would open houses and foundations in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States.

Writer David Scott writes that Mother Teresa limited herself only to keeping people alive

She has also been criticized for her view on suffering: According to an article in the Alberta Report, it was her opinion that suffering would bring people closer to Jesus.

Global recognition and awards

By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become an international celebrity. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God, which was filmed by Malcolm Muggeridge and his 1971 book of the same title. During the filming of the documentary, footage taken in poor lighting conditions, particularly the Home for the Dying, was thought unlikely to be of usable quality by the crew. After returning from India, however, the footage was found to be extremely well lit. Muggeridge claimed this was a miracle of "divine light" from Mother Teresa herself. Others in the crew thought it more likely due to a new type of Kodak film. Muggeridge later converted to Catholicism.

President Ronald Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony, 1985.

In 1971, Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, commending her for her work with the poor, display of Christian charity and efforts for peace. Other awards bestowed upon her included a Kennedy Prize (1971), the Pacem in Terris Award (1976), the Balzan Prize for promoting humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples (1978), the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and Congressional Gold Medal (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States (November 16, 1996), and honorary degrees from a number of universities. In 1972, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding. Later, in 1980, she received India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, and the British Order of Merit in 1983.

File:MotherTeresaTimeMag.jpg

Mother Teresa received great attention from the media, such as Time Magazine.

In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India, stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" Her answer was "Go home and love your family." Building upon this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." More specifically, she singled out abortion as 'the greatest destroyer of peace in the world'.

International charity

In 1982, at the height of the siege in Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she traveled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients.

When the walls of Eastern Europe collapsed, she expanded her efforts to Communist countries that had previously rejected the Missionaries of Charity, embarking on dozens of projects. She was undeterred by criticism about her firm stand against abortion and divorce stating, "No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work."

Mother Teresa traveled to assist and minister to the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her homeland and opened a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana, Albania.

By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York; by 1984 the order operated nineteen establishments throughout the country.

The spending of the charity money received has been criticized by some. Both Hitchens and the Stern have said that money that was donated with the intention of it being spent on the keeping of the poor was spent on other projects instead. Hypodermic needles in the houses were washed with cold water and reused, in order to save money.

Deteriorating health and death

Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome during 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received a pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems. She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity. However, the nuns of the order, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order.

In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August of that year she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She underwent heart surgery, but it was clear that her health was declining. On March 13, 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity and died on September 5,1997, nine days after her 87th birthday.

The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, said he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission when she was first hospitalized with cardiac problems because he thought she may be under attack by the devil.

At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 100,000 lay volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.

Mother Teresa was granted a state funeral by the Indian Government in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India. Her death was mourned in both secular and religious communities. The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, for example, said: "She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world." Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that Mother Teresa was "a rare and unique individual who lived long for higher purposes. Her life-long devotion to the care of the poor, the sick, and the disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service to our humanity."

Spiritual life

Analyzing her deeds and achievements, John Paul II asked: "Where did Mother Teresa find the strength and perseverance to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart."

In his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI mentioned Teresa of Calcutta three times and he also used her life to clarify one of his main points of the encyclical. "In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service."

Although there was no direct connection between Mother Teresa's order and the Franciscan orders, she was known as a great admirer of St. Francis of Assisi. Accordingly, her influence and life show influences of Franciscan spirituality. The Sisters of Charity recite the peace prayer of St. Francis every morning before breakfast and many of the vows and emphasis of her ministry are similar. St. Francis emphasized poverty, chastity, obedience and submission to Christ. He also devoted much of his own life to service of the poor, especially lepers in the area where he lived.

Influence in the world

Mother Teresa's work inspired other Catholics to affiliate themselves with her order. The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics were enrolled in the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests, and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers to combine the beauty of the vocation of the Missionaries of Charity with the resources of the ministerial priesthood. Today over one million workers worldwide volunteer for the Missionaries of Charity.

During her lifetime and after her death, Mother Teresa was consistently found by Gallup to be the single most widely admired person in the U.S., and in 1999 was ranked as the "most admired person of the 20th century" by a poll in the U.S. Notably, Mother Teresa out-polled all other volunteered answers by a wide margin, and was in first place in all major demographic categories except the very young.

Towards the end of her life, Mother Teresa attracted some negative attention in the media. The anti-theist Christopher Hitchens has been one of her most active critics in both the United Kingdom and the United States, co-writing and narrating the documentary Hell's Angel about her for Channel 4. He expanded his criticism in a 1995 book, The Missionary Position. The German magazine Stern published a hostile article on the first anniversary of Mother Teresa's death. Other critics include Tariq Ali, a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review, Aroup Chatterjee, a physician who formerly worked with the Missionaries of Charity and the Irish-born investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre.

Miracle and beatification

Following Mother Teresa's death in 1997, the Holy See began the process of beatification, the second step towards possible canonization. This process requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa. In 2002, the Vatican recognized as a miracle the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, following the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa's picture. Monica Besra said that a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumor. Some of Besra's medical staff and, initially, her husband insist that conventional medical treatment eradicated the tumor. Unless dispensed by the Pope, a second miracle is required for her to proceed to canonization.

Christopher Hitchens, a British-born American author, journalist and literary critic, was the only witness called by the Vatican to give evidence against Mother Teresa's beatification and canonization process, as the Vatican had abolished the traditional "devil's advocate" role that filled a similar purpose. Hitchens has written that Mother Teresa's own words on poverty proved that "her intention was not to help people", and he alleged that she lied to donors about the use of their contributions. “It was by talking to her that I discovered, and she assured me, that she wasn't working to alleviate poverty,” says Hitchens. “She was working to expand the number of Catholics. She said, ‘I'm not a social worker. I don't do it for this reason. I do it for Christ. I do it for the church.’" In the process of examining Teresa's suitability for beatification and canonization, the Roman Curia (the Vatican) pored over a great deal of documentation of published and unpublished criticisms against her life and work. Vatican officials say Hitchens' allegations have been investigated by the agency charged with such matters, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and they found no obstacle to Mother Teresa's canonization. Due to the attacks she has received, some Catholic writers have called her a sign of contradiction.

Commemoration

Memorial plaque dedicated to Mother Teresa at a building in Václavské náměstí in Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Main article: Commemorations of Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa inspired a wide variety of commemorations. Besides receiving numerous honors during her lifetime, she has also been memorialized through museums, been named patroness of various churches, and had various structures and roads named after her.

See also

• Missionaries of Charity
• Kalighat Home for the Dying
• Christopher Hitchens' critiques of specific individuals#Mother Teresa

References

• Alpion, Gezim. Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity?. London: Routledge Press, 2007. ISBN 0-415-39247-0
• Chawla, Navin. Mother Teresa (Element Books) 1996 ISBN 1-85230-911-3
• Benenate, Becky and Joseph Durepos (eds). Mother Teresa: No Greater Love (Fine Communications, 2000) ISBN 1-56731-401-5
• Bindra, Satinder (2001-09-07). "Archbishop: Mother Teresa underwent exorcism". CNN.com World. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
• Chatterjee, Aroup. Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict (Meteor Books, 2003). ISBN 81-88248-00-2, introduction and first three chapters on fourteen (without pictures). Critical examination of Agnes Bojaxhiu's life and work.
• Clucas, Joan. Mother Teresa. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. ISBN 1-55546-855-1
• Bijal Dwivedi, Mother Teresa: Woman of the Century
• Muggeridge, Malcolm Something Beautiful for God ISBN 0-06-066043-0
• Le Joly, Edward. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983. ISBN 0-06-065217-9
• Mundakel, T.T. Blessed Mother Teresa: Her Journey to Your Heart. ISBN 1-903650-61-5. ISBN 0-7648-1110-X. Book Review.
• Spink, Kathryn. Mother Teresa: A Complete Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. ISBN 0-06-250825-3.
• Mother Teresa et al, Mother Teresa: In My Own Words. ISBN 0-517-20169-0
• Sebba, Anne. Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image. New York: Doubleday, 1997. ISBN 0-385-48952-8.
• Willaims, Paul. Mother Teresa. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864278-3
• Wüllenweber, Walter. "Nehmen ist seliger denn geben. Mutter Teresa — wo sind ihre Millionen?" Stern (illustrated German weekly), September 10, 1998. English translation.

External links

General

• Missionaries of Charity Fathers (MC Fathers / MC Priests) - Official Website: Biography of Mother Teresa
• Mother Teresa Memorial Page
• Nobel Laureate Biography (Nobel Foundation)
• Complete Mother Teresa Quotations
• Mother Teresa: Angel of Mercy (CNN)
• The TIME 100: The Most Important People of the Century — Mother Teresa
• Speech at National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C. February 3, 1994
• Peggy Noonan, "Still, Small Voice," Crisis, 1 February 1998 (account of the National Prayer Breakfast speech)
• Mother Teresa at IMDb
• Missionaries of Charity Active and Contemplative Sisters with U.S. contact information (CMSWR member page)

Criticism

• "The Illusory vs The Real Mother Teresa," by Michael Hakeem, is a review of Christopher Hitchens' The Missionary Position. Published in Freethought Today, August 1996.
• "Saint to the rich" by Christopher Hitchens in Salon.com, September 1997.
• "Mommie Dearest" by Christopher Hitchens 20. October 2003.
• "The squalid truth behind the legacy of Mother Teresa" by Donal MacIntyre in the New Statesman, August 22, 2005
• "Mother Teresa: Where are her millions?", Stern 10. September 1998.
• "Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict", by Aroup Chatterjee. Meteor Books, India (December 20, 2002)

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