The great Mother

Hi,

Since morning, I am thinking of what to write on today's blog.
Mother teresa appeared in my mind. I don't know why.
So,I am writing about the great mother.

                    Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born on 26th August 1910. Though she was born on 26th August, she considers 27th August as her 'true birthday' because she was baptized on 27th. Her mother and father are Nikolle and Drana bojaxhiu.By the age of 12, she decided to commit herself to religious life and left home at age of 16 to join Sisters of loreto as missionary.
                    Agnes arrived in India in 1929. She took her first religious vows to become a nun on 24th May,1931. At that time, she chose the name of teresa.
                    The Bengal famine of 1943 and Hindu-Muslim violence in 1946 plunged the city into despair and horror. On 10th September,1946; she experienced 'the call within the call'. She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948. She started wearing a simple cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Teres adopted Indian citizenship and began her work to poor and slums.
                    Teresa received permission from vatican to start her new congregation by name 'Missionaries of Charity' at calcutta.Its mission was to care for, in her own words, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."
                    In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying in space made available by the city of Calcutta. With the help of Indian officials she converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat home for the dying, a free hospice for the poor. She renamed it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday).
Mother Teresa soon opened a home for those suffering from leprosy, and called the hospice Shanti Nagar (City of Peace).
                    In 1955 she opened the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.
                    Its first house outside India opened in Venezuela in 1965 with five sisters.Others followed in Rome, Tanzania, and Austria in 1968; during the 1970s the order opened houses and foundations in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States.
                   The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics were enrolled in the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity.
                    In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests,and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers to combine the vocational aims of the Missionaries of Charity with the resources of the ministerial priesthood.
                    Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting pope john paul II.. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems.In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She had heart surgery but it was clear that her health was declining.On 13 March 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity. She died on 5 September 1997.Mother Teresa lay in repose at St.Thomas, Kolkata for one week prior to her funeral, in September 1997. She was granted a state funeral by the Indian Government in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India.


Recognitions and Awards:-

1. Padma shri in 1962 
2. The Jawaharlal Nehru award for International understanding in 1969. 
3. India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 1980.
4. In 1962, Mother Teresa received the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, given for work in South or East Asia.
5. In 1971, Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, commending her for her work with the poor, display of Christian charity and efforts for peace.
6. The United Kingdom and the United States each repeatedly granted awards, culminating in the Order of Merit in 1983, 
7. Honorary citizenship of the United States received on 16 November 1996. 
8. Mother Teresa's Albanian homeland granted her the Golden Honour of the Nation in 1994.
9. Universities in both the West and in India granted her honorary degrees.
10. n 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India.

The beatification of Mother Teresa took place on 19 October 2003, thereby bestowing on her the title "Blessed."
So, Agnes has become Blessed Mother Teresa.
 
 Many many salutations to the Mother.