Collected Vatican News Mother Teresa young life Mother Teresa was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, which w...
Collected Vatican News
Mother Teresa young life
Mother Teresa was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia). Her parents were ethnic Albanians and devout Catholics.
As a young girl, Agnes was fascinated by the stories of Catholic missionaries and their work in India. At the age of 18, she joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns who ran missions in India. She arrived in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, in 1929, and spent 17 years teaching at a school for girls in Darjeeling.
In 1946, while on a train journey to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa experienced a "call within a call" from Jesus to serve the poorest of the poor. She left the convent and set up the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation dedicated to serving the sick and destitute.
Mother Teresa's early years were marked by her dedication to her faith and her desire to serve others. She was known for her simplicity and humility, and for her willingness to go to great lengths to help those in need. These qualities would later become the hallmark of her work as a missionary and humanitarian.
