Bible & Christianity › Christianity today › Christianity's center shifts to the Global South
Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity
order founded 1950, Kolkata; died 1997; saint 2016· Person· People
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
Albanian-born Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950 to serve the 'poorest of the poor.'
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje in 1910, she joined the Loreto Sisters and taught in Calcutta (now Kolkata). In 1946 she felt a 'call within the call' to live among the poor. Her order, approved in 1950, opened a home for the dying at Kalighat in 1952, then orphanages, leprosy centers and clinics. She won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. At her death in 1997 the order had about 4,000 sisters in over 120 countries.
Why it matters
She became the world's best-known image of Christian charity, and her order still runs homes for the dying, the poor and the sick worldwide.
Life, legacy and sources
Order records, Nobel documents, and her private letters, published as Come Be My Light (2007), which revealed decades of spiritual darkness. Canonization files document the two healings the Church accepted as miracles.
Questions and debates
Critics, notably Christopher Hitchens, questioned medical care in her homes and some of her donors; supporters say she offered love, not hospitals. Her long sense of God's absence fascinates biographers.
Connections (2)
▸Love God and love your neighbor (Great Commandment) inspired the work of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of CharityHistorical record
The connection
Jesus' command to love God and neighbor (Mark 12:28–31), joined to his words 'whatever you did for one of the least of these... you did for me' (Matthew 25:40), was her motive. She saw Jesus 'in the distressing disguise of the poor' and served the dying as she would serve him.
When and where
Calcutta (Kolkata), from her 1946 'call' onward; repeated in her 1979 Nobel Peace Prize lecture in Oslo and in the rule of the Missionaries of Charity.
Historical evidence
Her speeches, letters and the order's constitutions cite these texts directly; Jesus' words 'I thirst' (John 19:28) are painted beside the crucifix in every Missionaries of Charity chapel.
Questions and debates
Critics ask whether loving the neighbor also required better medical care and tackling poverty's causes; she answered that God called her to be faithful, not successful.
▸Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of CharityHistorical record
The connection
Francis canonized Mother Teresa as St. Teresa of Calcutta, 19 years after her death, during his Jubilee Year of Mercy, presenting her as a model of mercy toward the poor, the core message of his papacy. John Paul II had beatified her in 2003 after a fast-tracked process.
When and where
St. Peter's Square, Rome, September 4, 2016, before a crowd of about 120,000.
Historical evidence
The Vatican canonization decree and homily; the Church accepted the 2008 healing of a Brazilian man with brain abscesses as the required second miracle.
Questions and debates
Doctors disputed the first miracle, the 1998 healing of Monica Besra in India, saying medicine cured her; critics also questioned the speed of the process.