Mother Teresa, known as Mother Teresa, was an Indian Catholic nun and missionary of Albanian origin. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, Albania during the Ottoman Empire. He stayed there till he turned 18. In 1928 he came to India, then a British colony, via Ireland to preach Christianity. He remained in India till the last days of his life.
In 1950, he founded a Christian missionary society called Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. In 2012, 4,500 monks joined the Sangha. His missionary work spread first to India and then to the whole world. In 2016, Pope Francis canonized her as a “saint” and the Catholic Church named her “Saint Teresa of Calcutta”.
When Malcolm Muggeridge’s documentary Something Beautiful for God aired in 1969, her charity work was widely reported in the Western media and Teresa’s fame spread around the world. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor, in 1980. At the time of Teresa’s death, the Missionaries of Charity had 610 centers in 123 countries around the world, including treatment centers for people with AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, canteens, and child and family counseling centers.
Before and after his death, he was denounced and reviled by various individuals, organizations and governments of various states. Germaine Greer criticized Teresa as a “religious imperialist”. Individuals and organizations such as Christopher Hitchens, Michael Parenti, Arup Chatterjee, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad criticized his objections to birth control and abortion, his belief in the spiritual meaning of poverty, and the conversion of dying pilgrims to Christianity. Various medical journals have criticized the poor quality of care at the medical centers he established and expressed concern about the lack of transparency in the use of donated funds.
- the birth – 26 August 1910Yuskup, Ottoman Empire (modern Skopje, North Macedonia )
- Died – 5 September 1997 (age 87) Kolkata, West Bengal,Indian
- Nationality – Indian
- citizenship – Ottoman Affairs (1910-1912)
- . Universal Affairs (1912-1915)
- . Bulgarian Affairs (1915–1918)
- . Yugoslav Affairs (1918–1943)
- . Yugoslav citizens (1943–1948)
- . Indian Affairs (1948-1950)
- . Indian Citizen (1950–1997)
- . Albanian citizen (1991–1997)
- . Honorary American Citizenship (Awarded 1996)
- Occupation – Catholic nun, missionary
- Cause of familiarity – The Missionaries of Charity
- Successor – Nun Nirmala Joshi
- Awards – Nobel Peace Prize (1979)
- . Bharat Ratna (1980)
- . Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985)
- . Balzan Prize (1978)
- . Pope John XIII Peace Prize (1971)
biography
early life
Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, which at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire and is now the capital of North Macedonia. Born on 26 August, she considered 27 August her “real birthday” since she was baptized on that day. Of Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu, she was the last of their children. Their original homeland was the Shkodra region of Albania. Her father was involved in Albanian politics and died in 1919 when Anjezë was but eight years old. Her mother raised her subsequently in the Catholic faith.
According to the biography by Joan Graff Clucas, young Anjezë was fond of listening to stories about the lives and works of missionaries. At the age of 12 she decided to lead a religious life of asceticism. At 18, she left her home and joined the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never saw her mother or sisters again.
Agnes first learned English at Loreto Abbey in Rotherham, Ireland. Because this language was the medium of education of Loreto nuns in India. He came to India in 1929 and began working as a novice monk in Darjeeling. On 24 May 1931, she took her first vows as a nun. At this time she adopted the name Thérèse, after the patron saint of missionaries, Therese of Lisieux. She took her final vows on 14 May 1937 while teaching at Loreto Convent School in East Calcutta.
Although he taught school, he became increasingly concerned about the poverty of Calcutta. In the 1950s, the city was engulfed in untold suffering and death. In 1946, Hindu-Muslim riots resulted in many deaths. All these events had a profound effect on Teresa’s soul.
Missionaries of Charity
On September 10, 1946, when he went on a religious retreat to Darjeeling, he had a profound realization. The experience was later described as “another profession within a career”. He also said:
It was necessary for me to leave the convent and live among the poor and help them. It was a direct order. Failure to obey this order meant breach of trust.
In 1948 he started preaching among the poor. Loreto abandoned traditional customs. He wears a plain white cotton scarf with blue trim. At that time he took Indian citizenship and started working in the slums. He started by establishing a small school in Metzje. He then began to respond to the calls of the hungry and the poor. He continued to help them in various ways. His activities soon attracted the attention of the Indian authorities. The Prime Minister himself acknowledged his success.
The first days were very difficult for him. He wrote a lot about this in his diary. He had no money then. He had to go door to door collecting money to feed the poor and hungry. Money had to be collected from rich people. While doing so, he often felt despair, doubt and loneliness. At times it seemed better to return to the peaceful life of the convent.
Diary entry
On October 7, 1950, Teresa received permission from the Vatican to establish an “Episcopal Missionary Society” (a parish-like community). This group later emerged as the Missionaries of Charity.
The charity started as a small organization in Kolkata with just 13 members. More than four thousand monks are working there now. The charity runs orphanages and rehabilitation centers for AIDS patients. Around the world, charities work tirelessly to help refugees, the blind, the paralyzed, the elderly, drug addicts, the poor, the homeless and those affected by floods, famines or epidemics.
In the charity’s early years, in 1952, the first asylum and care center for the mentally ill was opened on land provided by the Calcutta city government by Mother Teresa. An abandoned Hindu temple in Kalighat was transformed into a hospice after Indian authorities came to its aid, thus a non-profit medical center dedicated to the poor was born. It was later renamed Nirmal Hriday. That is where the refugees were treated and allowed to die with dignity. “A beautiful death is when people who live like animals die like beautiful angels,” Teresa famously said.
Within days, Teresa Hansen founded Shanti Nagar, a service center that nursed people suffering from leprosy. On the initiative of the Missionaries of Charity, a number of centers for the treatment of the lethal disease were also opened in far-flung areas outside Kolkata. These centres supplied medicine, bandages, and food to those in need.
Sangh’s children were brought up. Children get education. At some point, as the number of children increased, Teresa felt the need to build a home for them. Nirmal Shishu Bhavan was established in 1955 with this feeling. This building was a shelter for orphans and street children.
Soon the Missionaries of Charity were able to attract the attention of many organizations and donors inside and outside. It is possible to collect a lot of money. In the 1960s, numerous non-profit medical centers, orphanages, and sanatoriums were established across India, funded and managed by humanitarian organizations. The first center outside India was established in 1965 in Venezuela. The center was founded with only five monks. Then gradually it spread to different countries. In 1968, branches were opened in Rome, Tanzania and Austria. In the 1970s, branches were established in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
However, it also raises criticisms of its philosophical and practical aspects. Critics have not been able to provide much evidence against Mother Teresa. David Scott admits this: “Mother Teresa herself was more interested in keeping people alive than in alleviating poverty.” Moreover, his approach to suffering has also been criticized. “He believed that suffering was a way to get closer to Jesus,” Alberta reports. Also, the British Medical Journal and Lancet have expressed doubts about the quality of care provided by the service. Many people use hypodermic needles more than once. The center has also been criticized for its low standard of living. From the non-materialist perspective of the stone, systematic identification was almost impossible.
International activities
In 1982, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children stranded in hospitals on the front lines during the worst part of the war. He arranged a temporary ceasefire between the Israeli army and the Palestinian guerrillas and ensured somewhat favorable conditions. Take this opportunity to visit war-torn areas with the help of the Red Cross. Evacuate young patients from destroyed hospitals.
During the socialist regime, evangelical activities were banned in many Eastern European countries. But by the 1980s this part of Europe had become relatively liberal. During this time, Mother Teresa was able to expand the work of the Missionaries of Charity in Eastern Europe. His career began with dozens of projects. At the time, many criticized his hardline stance against abortion and divorce. But Teresa always said,
Teresa visited famine-stricken areas in Ethiopia and visited areas affected by Chernobyl radiation. Serving earthquake victims in America. In 1991, Teresa returned to her homeland, Albania, for the first time. Founded “Missionaries of Charity Brothers Home” in Tirana city of this country.
By 1996, he had completed a total of 517 missions to more than 100 countries worldwide. What started with just 12 members grew to thousands of members over time. All of them provide humanitarian services in about 450 centers in different countries. This charity which once served the poor is still active today. The charity’s first branch in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. By 1984, there were about 19 charities active in the United States.
Some have criticized the charity’s use of income for charitable work. Christopher Hitchens and Stern magazine criticized the fact that some of the money that goes to charities for the development of the poor is also spent on other causes.
Perfect Condition
On December 17, 2015, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had recognized Mother Teresa’s second miracle of healing a Brazilian man with multiple brain tumors. He was honored by Pope Francis in a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on September 4, 2016. The event drew hundreds of thousands of people from Italy, including 15 government officials and 1,500 homeless people. The event was broadcast live online on the Vatican channel and was also streamed online in Mother Teresa’s hometown of Skopje, announcing a week-long celebration of her canonization. A special event was organized at the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India.
Illness and death
In 1983, on the way to Rome, in order to visit Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa suffered her first heart attack. She was fitted with an artificial pacemaker after another heart attack in 1989. Her heart problem worsened in 1991, when she became a victim of pneumonia during a visit to Mexico. It is in this background that she made a formal offer to resign as the Missionaries of Charity head. However, the organization pressed her to continue at the post.
In April 1996, she fell and broke her collarbone. In August, she contracted malaria, and her left heart valve was no longer able to pump blood adequately. On March 13, 1997, she stepped down as head of the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997.
The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D’Souza, said he asked the missionaries to leave after Teresa was hospitalized for a heart attack. Because I thought Satan attacked Teresa.At the time of her death, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity numbered 4,000 sisters, with 300 fraternal members. And the number of volunteers exceeded 100 thousand. In total, 610 centers carried out evangelistic work in 123 countries. These centers included AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis treatment centers, canteens, child and family counseling centers, orphanages and schools.
Spiritual Life
Although Teresa practiced Christianity disciplinedly in her daily life, her correspondence shows that she did not feel the presence of God in her heart for the last 50 years of her life. He lamented the absence of God and wrote that he was forsaken by God.
Criticism
A controversial figure, the life and work of Mary Teresa Bozagehu continues to be criticized and condemned by various individuals, organizations and governments around the world even after her death. His work and a group of charitable missionaries he founded caused widespread controversy. Critics criticized the Missionaries of Charity’s poor quality of service, forced conversion and conversion of pilgrims to Christianity, and linked them to colonialism and racism.
Teresa’s community provided “everything as long as you were a Christian,” be it food or a place to sleep. Teresa became a hot topic in the media. Many critics believe that the Catholic Church used Teresa’s image to promote and criticize Christianity. World-renowned thinker Germaine Greer criticized Teresa as a “religious imperialist”. Many call him an extremist, fundamentalist and crazy hypocrite, saying he is using oppressed people as weapons for religious ideals or personal gain.
Awards and honors
- Nobel Peace Prize-1979
- Bharat Ratna -1980
- Saint – 2016
