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Exclusive information on the congressional medal, medal histories, biographies, and more. Exclusive Congressional Medal Information
Awards Bestowed by the US Government
The Life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
The History of the United States Mint
Jackie Robinson Posthumously Awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor
Collecting Commemorative Coins
Female Congressional Gold Medal Winners
Audie Murphy: Congressional Medal of Honor Winner The Life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta Published March 16, 2006 by
Allen Butler Did you know?The Missionaries of Charity started with only 12 members in 1950.
TakeawaysMother Teresa was born Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu on August 27th, 1910She joined the Sisters of Loreto at the age of 18, and went to Calcutta to be a teacherIn 1950 she created her own order, the Missionaries of CharityThe Early YearsMother Teresa of Calcutta was born Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in the city of Skopje, Macedonia on the 27th of August, 1910. The youngest of three children, Gonxha new from an early age that it would be her life's work to help the poor. By the age of 12 she knew her vocation, and wanted to serve in India, half a world away from her home in Macedonia. She began her work in the local Jesuit parish youth group called Sodality. By the age of 18, however, she was ready to move beyond Skopje and onwards towards India. She began by joining the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish missionary organization that had a mission in Calcutta. She travelled to Rathfarnham, Ireland, a suburb of Dublin to begin her training. As a member of the Sisters of Loreto Gonxha took the name Sister Mary Teresa, after St. Teresa of Lisieux. On January 6th, 1929, she left Ireland and set sail for Calcutta, where she would spend the rest of her life working with the poor of India. Teresa's career in Calcutta began in St. Mary's School for girls where she served as a teacher. She took her first vows in 1931 and her final vows in 1937, after which she went by the name that the world knows her by, Mother Teresa. For 19 years Mother Teresa worked in St. Mary's School for girls, becoming principal in 1944. In 1946, however, she received a new calling to leave the school and work directly with the poor. In 1948 she received permission from Pope Pius XII to leave the Sisters of Loreto and work as an independent nun. The Missionaries of CharityAfter leaving St. Mary's School for girls Mother Teresa worked first with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, then returned to Calcutta and worked with the Little Sisters of the Poor. With them she opened a school for homeless children, however she soon moved on to work with the sick and dying who had been rejected by local hospitals. In 1950 Mother Teresa was allowed to start her own order: the Missionaries of Charity. The order began with only 12 members in Calcutta, although it would one day grow to have a membership of thousands spread across the world. Her first act with the Missionaries of Charity was the building of the Kalighat Home for the Dying in an abandoned Hindu temple given to her by the city of Calcutta. This was followed soon after by the building of another hospice, the Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) and Shanti Nagar (City of Peace) a home for lepers. By the 1960's Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity's fame and renown were beginning to grow, and soon hospices, orphanages and leper houses were being built across India. In 1962 she received her first humanitarian award, the Padma Shri for distinguished service. In 1963 the Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded. This would be followed over the years by a number of such brother and sister organizations. Mother Teresa in the Eye of the WorldStarting off with only 12 nuns in the early days of the Missionaries of Charity Mother Teresa's fame slowly grew throughout India as she continued expanding her work. In 1969 British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge travelled to Calcutta to make a documentary on her work entitled Something Beautiful for God which was followed by the bestselling book of the same name.
Something Beautiful for God would bring Mother Teresa into the international spotlight, a place that she would never leave. The experience would also have a life-changing impact on Muggeridge, leading to his conversion to Catholicism. Throughout the rest of her life Mother Teresa would receive numerous awards, including the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. In 1996 she was even given honory citizenship in the United States of America, one of only six people to have achieved the honor. Mother Teresa began travelling the world, although the focus of her work remained in Calcutta. In 1982 she persuaded Israelis and Palestinians in the midst of a skirmish to ceasefire long enough to remove 37 mentally handicapped children from a besieged hospital in Beirut. She also travelled to the Ukraine after the Chernobyl accident to help radiation victims, among a number of other noteworthy trips. CriticismDespite her near universal international acclaim, there were some that criticized Mother Teresa. Most notably they criticized her baptisms for the dying and the ultimate destination of donations made to her organizations. Mother Teresa would often baptize people on their death beds, despite their religion, giving them "a ticket to St. Peter" as she called it. Others were angered that donations sent to Mother Teresa were not in fact used directly by her but were rather sent directly to the Vatican, as nearly all donations to Catholic organizations are. Some doctors also criticized the Missionaries of Charity on the quality of health care provided by their hospices and other institutions. Death and BeatificationMother Teresa suffered a heart attack in 1983 while visiting Pope John Paul II in Rome. After this event her health would continue to deteriorate, leading to a second and almost fatal heart attack in 1989 when she had a pacemaker installed. In 1990 due to her deteriorating health she offered to resign as head of the Missionaries of Charity but was not allowed by a secret vote, unanimous save her own in their determination to keep her on. By 1997, however, after a series of other accidents and illnesses her health became too prohibitive to allow her to continue on. She resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity on March 13, 1997. She would die on September 5, 1997, just 8 days after her 87th birthday. On October 19th, 2003, only 6 years after her death, Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul II, the first step towards canonization as a Saint. He had begun the opening of her Cause for Canonization 4 years earlier in 1999 to investigate the possibility of her Sainthood. In order to be made a saint a total of two miracles must be attributed to the person in question. The first miracle allows the person to be beatified, the second grants them sainthood. The miracle of Mother Teresa of Calcutta involves the case of Monica Besra, an Indian woman who suffered from a cancerous tumour in her abdomen. According to the Catholic Church the healing came through the intercession of Mother Teresa, through a locket containing Mother Teresa's picture. Although officially recognized by the Catholic Church, many critics claim that the cure actually came through the work of doctor's after the reception of the locket. Despite criticism, Mother Teresa remains one of the most highly regarded figures of the 20th century, perhaps second only to Gandhi in her mission of peace and assistance to the poor. She is almost universally acclaimed across the world, and it is highly believed that she will soon be made a saint. User-generated content powered by
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