Saturday, August 27, 2005

Born on this Day: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu

Better known as: Mother Teresa (of Calcutta)

Christian missionary in India, born in Skopje, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. She went to India in 1928, and taught at a convent school in Calcutta, taking her final vows in 1937. She became principal of the school, but in 1948 left the convent to work alone in the slums. After medical training in Paris, she opened some classrooms for destitute children in Calcutta. She was gradually joined by other nuns, and her House for the Dying was opened in 1952. Her sisterhood, the Missionaries of Charity, started in 1950, and in 1957 she started work with lepers and in many disaster areas of the world. She was awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971), the inaugural Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion (1973), and the Nobel Peace Prize (1979). In 2003 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in a ceremony in St Peter's Square timed to coincide with the celebrations for his silver jubilee.

A woman of peace and a servant to all.

GodBless:

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