Mother Teresa, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, (born August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was an Albanian, Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950. For over forty five years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity`s expansion, first throughout India and then in 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. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India`s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa`s Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children`s and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.

She has been praised by many individuals, governments and organisations; however, she has also faced a diverse range of criticism. These include objections by various individuals, including Christopher Hitchens, Aroup Chatterjee, Vishva Hindu Parishad, against the proselytizing focus of her work; this included baptisms of the dying, a strong pro-life stance on abortion and a belief in the spiritual goodness of poverty. Several medical journals also criticised the standard of medical care in her hospices, and concerns were raised about the opaque nature in which donated money was spent.

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

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu /ˈagnɛs gɔnˈʤa bɔˈjadʒju/ (Albanian Gonxha for "rosebud") was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Although she was born on August 26, 1910, she considered August 27, 1910, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday." (2002). [7] Although some sources state that she was 10 when her father died, in an interview with her brother, the Vatican documents her age at the time as "about eight". She was the youngest of the children of a family from Shkodėr, Albania, born to Kolė and Dranafile Bojaxhiu ( Albanian Dranafile for "rose",nicknamed "Drone").[8] Her father, Kolė Bojaxhiu was involved in Albanian politics. In 1919, after a political meeting, which left Skopje out of Albania) he fell ill and died when Agnes was about eight years old.[9] After her father`s death, her mother raised her as a Roman Catholic. According to a biography by Joan Graff Clucas, in her early years Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service, and by age 12 was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life.[10] She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister.[11]

Agnes initially went to the Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland to learn English, the language the Sisters of Loreto used to teach school children in India.[12] She arrived in India in 1929, and began her novitiate in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains.[13] She took her first religious vows as a nun on May 24, 1931. At that time she chose the name Teresa after Thérčse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries.[14] She took her solemn

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