Biography of Mother Teresa
The following is an excerpt from A Retreat with Mother Teresa and Damien of Molokai: Caring for those who Suffer by Joan Guntzelman
Mother
Teresa was always her own person, startlingly independent, obedient,
yet challenging some preconceived notions and expectations. Her own
life story includes many illustrations of her willingness to listen to
and follow her own conscience, even when it seemed to contradict what
was expected.
This strong and independent woman was born
Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Yugoslavia, on August 27, 1910. Five
children were born to Nikola and Dronda Bojaxhiu, yet only three
survived. Gonxha was the youngest, with an older sister, Aga, and
brother, Lazar. This brother describes the family's early years as
"well-off," not the life of peasants reported inaccurately by some. "We
lacked for nothing." In fact, the family lived in one of the two houses
they owned.
Nikola was a contractor, working with a
partner in a successful construction business. He was also heavily
involved in the politics of the day. Lazar tells of his father's rather
sudden and shocking death, which may have been due to poisoning because
of his political involvement. With this event, life changed overnight
as their mother assumed total responsibility for the family, Aga, only
14, Lazar, 9, and Gonxha, 7.
Though so much of her young
life was centered in the Church, Mother Teresa later revealed that
until she reached 18, she had never thought of being a nun. During her
early years, however, she was fascinated with stories of missionary
life and service. She could locate any number of missions on the map,
and tell others of the service being given in each place.
Called to Religious Life
At
18, Gonxha decided to follow the path that seems to have been
unconsciously unfolding throughout her life. She chose the Loreto
Sisters of Dublin, missionaries and educators founded in the 17th
century to educate young girls.
In 1928, the future
Mother Teresa began her religious life in Ireland, far from her family
and the life she'd known, never seeing her mother again in this life,
speaking a language few understood. During this period a sister novice
remembered her as "very small, quiet and shy," and another member of
the congregation described her as "ordinary." Mother Teresa herself,
even with the later decision to begin her own community of religious,
continued to value her beginnings with the Loreto sisters and to
maintain close ties. Unwavering commitment and self-discipline, always
a part of her life and reinforced in her association with the Loreto
sisters, seemed to stay with her throughout her life.
One
year later, in 1929, Gonxha was sent to Darjeeling to the novitiate of
the Sisters of Loreto. In 1931, she made her first vows there, choosing
the name of Teresa, honoring both saints of the same name, Teresa of
Avila and Therese of Lisieux. In keeping with the usual procedures of
the congregation and her deepest desires, it was time for the new
Sister Teresa to begin her years of service to God's people. She was
sent to St. Mary's, a high school for girls in a district of Calcutta.
Here
she began a career teaching history and geography, which she reportedly
did with dedication and enjoyment for the next 15 years. It was in the
protected environment of this school for the daughters of the wealthy
that Teresa's new "vocation" developed and grew. This was the clear
message, the invitation to her "second calling," that Teresa heard on
that fateful day in 1946 when she traveled to Darjeeling for retreat.
The Streets of Calcutta
During
the next two years, Teresa pursued every avenue to follow what she
"never doubted" was the direction God was pointing her. She was "to
give up even Loreto where I was very happy and to go out in the
streets. I heard the call to give up all and follow Christ into the
slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor."
Technicalities
and practicalities abounded. She had to be released formally, not from
her perpetual vows, but from living within the convents of the Sisters
of Loreto. She had to confront the Church's resistance to forming new
religious communities, and receive permission from the Archbishop of
Calcutta to serve the poor openly on the streets. She had to figure out
how to live and work on the streets, without the safety and comfort of
the convent. As for clothing, Teresa decided she would set aside the
habit she had worn during her years as a Loreto sister and wear the
ordinary dress of an Indian woman: a plain white sari and sandals.
Teresa
first went to Patna for a few months to prepare for her future work by
taking a nursing course. In 1948 she received permission from Pius XII
to leave her community and live as an independent nun. So back to
Calcutta she went and found a small hovel to rent to begin her new
undertaking.
Wisely, she thought to start by teaching the
children of the slums, an endeavor she knew well. Though she had no
proper equipment, she made use of what was available—writing in the
dirt. She strove to make the children of the poor literate, to teach
them basic hygiene. As they grew to know her, she gradually began
visiting the poor and ill in their families and others all crowded
together in the surrounding squalid shacks, inquiring about their needs.
Teresa
found a never-ending stream of human needs in the poor she met, and
frequently was exhausted. Despite the weariness of her days she never
omitted her prayer, finding it the source of support, strength and
blessing for all her ministry.
A Movement Begins
Teresa
was not alone for long. Within a year, she found more help than she
anticipated. Many seemed to have been waiting for her example to open
their own floodgates of charity and compassion. Young women came to
volunteer their services and later became the core of her Missionaries
of Charity. Others offered food, clothing, the use of buildings,
medical supplies and money. As support and assistance mushroomed, more
and more services became possible to huge numbers of suffering people.
From
their birth in Calcutta, nourished by the faith, compassion and
commitment of Mother Teresa, the Missionaries of Charity have grown
like the mustard seed of the Scriptures. New vocations continue to come
from all parts of the world, serving those in great need wherever they
are found. Homes for the dying, refuges for the care and teaching of
orphans and abandoned children, treatment centers and hospitals for
those suffering from leprosy, centers and refuges for alcoholics, the
aged and street people—the list is endless.
Until her
death in 1997, Mother Teresa continued her work among the poorest of
the poor, depending on God for all of her needs. Honors too numerous to
mention had come her way throughout the years, as the world stood
astounded by her care for those usually deemed of little value. In her
own eyes she was "God's pencil—a tiny bit of pencil with which he
writes what he likes."
Despite years of strenuous
physical, emotional and spiritual work, Mother Teresa seemed
unstoppable. Though frail and bent, with numerous ailments, she always
returned to her work, to those who received her compassionate care for
more than 50 years. Only months before her death, when she became too
weak to manage the administrative work, she relinquished the position
of head of her Missionaries of Charity. She knew the work would go on.
Finally,
on September 5, 1997, after finishing her dinner and prayers, her
weakened heart gave her back to the God who was the very center of her
life.
