“If you listen with your heart you will hear, you will understand .... until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you, you can’t begin to know who He wants to be for you. Or who He wants you to be for Him.” (Mother)

"…“There is no truer happiness than that of being all for God. If you want to be happy, then strive to let God live in you.” (Mother)

Gonxha Bojaxhiu, the future Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born in Skopje on 26th August 1910. At the age of 18, she travelled to Ireland to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto Sisters).

Taking the name of Sister Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux, she was soon sent to India where she made her first profession of vows in 1931. She spent 18 years at the Loreto School in Calcutta, first as a teacher then as headmistress. After her final profession, in 1937, she was called “Mother Teresa”.

Mary – Mother of Jesus
“He has given us Our Lady's spirit to be the spirit of our society... Loving Trust and Total Surrender made Our Lady say “Yes” to the message of the angel, and cheerfulness made her to run in haste to serve her cousin Elizabeth. That is so much of our life – saying, “Yes” to Jesus and running in haste to serve Him in the poorest of the poor. Let us keep close to Our Lady and she will make that same spirit grow in each one of us.”

The Brothers honour Mary as patroness of our Congregation under the title of Mary Mother of the Poor.

“If we stand with Our Lady, she will give us her spirit of loving trust, total surrender and cheerfulness.” (Mother Teresa)

Mother Teresa maintained a deep and close relationship with Mary, the Mother of Jesus (Our Lady) throughout her life. She taught that it was at Our Lady's pleading that the Missionaries of Charity was born.

On 10th Sept. 1946, during a train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received an “inspiration”, which she later described as a “call within a call”. That experience of the “infinite thirst of Jesus on the Cross for love and for souls," filled her whole being from that time on. Jesus asked her to found the religious community of the 'Missionaries of Charity' dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor.

Trusting wholeheartedly in God's tender love for her and his poor, she left the Loreto Convent and started her new mission in Dec. 1948. The Missionaries of Charity was officially established on 7th October, 1950, the Feast of the Holy Rosary.

Mother Teresa remained at the head of the Missionaries of Charity until March 1997, becoming a symbol of God's love and compassion for the world.

She died on 5th Sept. 1997. On 4th Sept. 2016 she was declared a saint, St. Teresa of Calcutta.

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