by Andrew Koslosky KGCHS, Contributing Writer
In an age when global attention often moves quickly from one crisis to the next, the life of Mother Teresa continues to hold a rare place in public memory. Known around the world for her work among the poorest people in Kolkata, India, she became one of the twentieth century’s most recognizable figures of charity, faith, and humanitarian service. Her simple white sari with blue borders, her small frame, and her direct language about compassion made her an international symbol of care for people who were sick, abandoned, homeless, or dying.
Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire and now the capital of North Macedonia, she was raised in an ethnic Albanian Catholic family. She grew up in a household where religious devotion and concern for the poor were important parts of daily life.
Her father died when she was young, and her mother’s example of generosity left a deep impression.
By her teenage years, she felt called to a religious life and missionary service.
At 18, she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland, taking the name Sister Mary Teresa after St.Thérèse of Lisieux.
Soon afterward, in 1929, she traveled to India, arriving in Calcutta.
For nearly two decades she taught at St. Mary’s School for girls, eventually becoming principal. Those years gave her discipline, experience as an educator, and close contact with the social realities outside the convent walls.
However, she tells us the turning point came on September 10, 1946, during a train journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling. Mother Teresa later described the experience as a “call within a call.”
She believed she was being asked to leave the security of the convent school and live among the poor, serving those who had no one else to care for them.
After receiving permission from church authorities, she began working in the slums of Calcutta.
In 1948, with little money, she started by teaching children outdoors and caring for people she encountered in the streets. In 1950, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation dedicated to serving “the poorest of the poor.”
The order’s work expanded from small beginnings into homes for the dying, orphanages, clinics, schools, shelters, and centers for people affected by leprosy, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hunger, and homelessness.
The sisters took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, along with a fourth vow to offer wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.
One of the best-known institutions associated with her work was Nirmal Hriday, a hospice opened in 1952 for people who were terminally ill and had often been left without care. The purpose was not merely medical treatment, but dignity.
Mother Teresa believed that no person should die unwanted, unnamed, or unloved. This approach drew admiration from supporters who saw in her work a direct response to human suffering that many societies preferred not to see.
Her rise to international prominence came as reporters, photographers, church leaders, political figures, and donors began to take notice.
She would soon receive many awards for her service. India honored her with the Padma Shri in 1962 and the Bharat Ratna in 1980. In 1979, she received the Nobel Peace Prize for what the Nobel Committee described as work that brought help to suffering humanity.
In her public appearances, she redirected attention away from herself and toward the people she served. For many of us, Mother Teresa’s appeal lies in the simplicity of her message. She did not present poverty as an abstract policy issue but as a personal encounter.
She urged people to begin with the person nearest to them: the hungry neighbor, the lonely family member, the abandoned patient, the child without support. Her language was religious, but the challenge she posed was also civic and human: communities reveal their character by the way they treat their most vulnerable members.
Do we hear that call on a regular basis?
At the same time, any serious newspaper article must acknowledge that her legacy has also been debated by some. Critics questioned the medical standards in some facilities, the use of donations, and her public positions on issues such as abortion, divorce, and contraception.
Others argued that her mission focused more on comfort and spiritual dignity than on structural reforms to poverty.
These criticisms have formed part of the public conversation about her work, especially as scholars and journalists examine the difference between charity, healthcare, and social justice.
Supporters respond that Mother Teresa entered places where few others were willing to go, offering immediate care to people who had already been rejected by family, institutions, or society. They point to the growth of the Missionaries of Charity across countries and continents as evidence that her example inspired thousands to serve.
By the time of her death on September 5, 1997, the congregation had expanded far beyond India, with sisters, brothers, priests, volunteers, and lay co-workers carrying out related forms of service around the world.
As I examine the history of her works, I find that Mother Teresa’s life also raises larger questions for our so-called modern society.
What does compassion require when suffering is visible every day? Can small acts of mercy matter when poverty is rooted in large economic and political systems?
Is dignity possible even when cure is not? Her work did not answer every question about poverty, medicine, or justice.
Instead, it forced those questions into public view through a life lived among people many others ignored.
I believe that mighty summation is why the Catholic Church moved quickly after her death to recognize her sanctity.
Pope John Paul II beatified her in 2003, and Pope Francis canonized her on September 4, 2016, giving her the title Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Her feast day is observed on September 5, the anniversary of her death.
For Catholics, sainthood confirmed what many admirers had long believed, that her life was a witness to faith expressed through service.
For newspaper readers today, Mother Teresa remains important not only because of the awards she received or the institutions she founded, but because of the uncomfortable moral clarity of her example.
She insisted that people who are poor, sick, disabled, orphaned, or dying are not problems to be hidden away. They are human beings whose values do not depend on productivity, wealth, nationality, religion, or public approval.
Mother Teresa’s life asks whether compassion can still be practiced in a world that often measures success by speed, profit, and status.
Her answer was found not in theory, but in daily acts: feeding, washing, teaching, carrying, listening, and staying with people at the edge of life.
Nearly three decades after her death, Mother Teresa’s name continues to evoke both devotion and debate. But whether one views her primarily as a saint, a humanitarian, or a symbol of charity, her impact is undeniable.
From a childhood in Skopje to a lifetime in India, she built a mission that carried the suffering of the forgotten into the conscience of the world. Her legacy endures wherever people choose to see dignity in those whom society is tempted to overlook.
Peace my Brothers and Sisters until next week…
(Photo from Getty Images)
