112th Birth Anniversary of Mother Teresa: Celebrating her extraordinary life

Mother Teresa's lifelong dedication to the world's poorest and most vulnerable people inspired countless millions. Today, i.e. August 26, marks the 112th birth anniversary of the epitome of peace, kindness and happiness, Mother Teresa, also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Her extraordinary dedication and sacrifice made her an international icon of humanitarian service, and the love and compassion she offered the underprivileged of all religions earned her a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, which she donated fully to the poor. She was an icon of compassionate care for the poor and the disadvantaged. 

Early Life

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. Her ancestors were Albanians. She felt deeply about God's call when she was twelve years old. She realised that she had to be a missionary in order to preach Christ's love. So, she left her home at the age of eighteen to join the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish order of nuns with missions in India. After a few months of training in Dublin, she was transported to India, where she professed her first vows as a nun on May 24, 1931.

Devoting life for poor

Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta from 1931 to 1948, but the suffering and poverty she witnessed outside the convent walls left such a lasting imprint on her that in 1948, she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in Calcutta's slums. Despite her lack of cash, she relied on Divine Providence and established an open-air school for slum children. She was soon joined by others, and financial assistance was also provided. This enabled her to broaden the scope of her work.

Mother Teresa got authorization from the Holy See on October 7, 1950, to establish her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity," whose primary aim was to love and care for individuals whom no one else was willing to look for. By Pope Paul VI's order in 1965, the Society became an International Religious Family. Today, the congression serves the lowest of the impoverished, regardless of socioeconomic status, creed, colour, or religion. They deliberately choose to demonstrate God's compassion for the poorest and most vulnerable by being on the ground and providing immediate and practical assistance to people in need until they can find someone who can support them in a better and more lasting way.

Today, Missionaries of Charity commemorates her the 112th birth anniversary of its founder Mother Teresa.

West Bengal | Missionaries of Charity, a congregation in Kolkata, commemorates the 112th birth anniversary of its founder Mother Teresa pic.twitter.com/JUK4Cb4CZo — ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2022

Famous Quotes by Mother Teresa

• Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies
• Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier
• Intense love does not measure, it just gives
• Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love
• The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread
• Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin
• Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.
• If you judge people, you have no time to love them
• I cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples
• God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.