Mother Teresa died on this day 14 years ago. She had been born Agnes Bojaxhiu some 87 years previously in Skopje, and left home at the age of 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland, where she began her training as a nun and learnt to speak English, then went to India in 1929 to teach at St Teresa’s School in Darjeeling. She subsequently taught at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta and became headmistress in 1944.
In 1943 some 3 million people died because of a famine in Bengal, and in 1946 conflict between Muslims and Hindus resulted in thousands of deaths. On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced a call from God to serve the poor and live amongst them, and in 1948 she began the work, venturing out into the slums to tend to the needs of the destitute and starving. With no income, she had to beg for food and supplies.
In 1950 Teresa and 12 others began the congregation which subsequently became known as the Missionaries of Charity. Two years later she opened the first Home for the Dying as a free hospice for the poor. Subsequently she opened homes for lepers and lost children, and as donations began to flow in new hospices, orphanages and leper houses were opened throughout India. News of the work spread, and in 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.