How old was Mother Teresa when she first went to India?

Answer 1

At about the age of twelve, Mother Teresa realized that she wanted to live her life with the poor and God. She discussed this with a Father she assisted in church and asked him how she could be sure about it. He replied that if the thought of it makes her happy, then it is it. And he added: "the deep inner joy that you feel is the compass that indicates your direction in life". At 18, she decided to be a nun. When she discussed this with her mother, her mother spent a whole day alone in a room and when she came out, she held her daughter's hand in hers and told her: "Put Your hand in His and walk all the way with Him."

She left Skopje on September 26, 1928 to become a nun. Many of her friends, relatives and neighbors accompanied her to the station and that was the last time she saw her mother. Other girls who were on the same mission joined her along her journey. Agnes and her colleague landed at Rathfarnham, Dublin and they went to the house of the Loreto Sisters. She stayed at the convent for a few months and then started her journey to India on December 1, 1928. Before sailing for India, Agnes had changed her name from Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Sister Mary Teresa of the Child Jesus - after Teresa of Lisieux, the 'Little Flower'.

Mary Teresa, as she was then called, reached Kolkata in January 1929 but went on to Darjeeling to become a Loreto beginner. In May, she received the 'holy habit' (the religious dress of Loreto) and began to learn Bengali and Hindi. She worked as a teacher in a convent in Darjeeling for some time and then moved to Kolkata. She taught in schools in Kolkata too and her affectionate disposition, people called her "Ma".

On May 24, 1937, Mary Teresa finally took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience for life. From that very day, she was renamed as 'Mother Teresa'.

On 10th September 1946, on a train journey, she got what she terms as a "call within a call". She felt she heard the call of God to leave the Convent and help the poor while living amongst them. She discussed this call with a father, Van Exem. And she had to wait to get permission from the Archbishop, her Mother Superior and the Pope to leave the Loretto sisters but still be a part of the Roman Catholic church. She finally received the permission in August 1948, to leave Loreto Order. She was given the 'induct of exclaustration' (meaning - allowing her to leave the Convent and remain as a religious, committed to her vows and under the obedience of Archbishop).

On the evening of August 16, Mother Teresa removed her old religious habit (dress) and wore a new habit of her future 'Missionary of Charity' Order. Her new dress consisted of a simple, cotton, white sari with blue stripes (blue was the color of Virgin Mary) alongwith white habits to be worn under the sari.

At midnight of August 16, Mother Teresa left Loreto Order with only a ticket to Patna and just Rs.5 for other expenditure. In Patna, she worked in the Holy Family Hospital and gained some medical knowledge. She returned from Patna and formed new rules of her 'Missionaries of Charity' in Kolkata. As per the rules of Missionaries of Charity the nuns who would join the Order, would live, dress and eat like the poorest of the poor. They would have to take utmost care of the poor people.

Sister Teresa went to the slums and the streets of Kolkata, to talk with the poor, to help them. She helped them wash the babies, to clean the wounds. The poor people were astonished at the European Lady who was helping them. She began to teach the poor children how to read and write, how to wash and to have some hygiene.

Her first residence cum-office of Missionaries of Charity was a small room on the first floor of Little Sisters of the Poor's Institution in Kolkata. She slept with the Sisters of the Poor. God was her great refuge for strength and material support. She always had faith in him that he would always find the right medicine, clothes, food and a place to receive the poor to be able to help them, make them feel wanted.

On 19th March 1949, a Bengali girl, from a well-off family and former student of Mother Teresa, came to stay with Sister Teresa and help her. She was the first to join her in her work. Soon, other girls followed: in May they were three, in November five, next year seven. Mother Teresa thinks of starting a congregation. On October 7th, 1950, the Papal in Rome approves of the "Constitutions of the Society of the Missionaries of Charity". Thus the Missionaries of Charity began with just twelve members.

However, every year, the number of sisters in it was increasing and so are the volunteers and the people that they need to care for. The society grew in work and number. Mother kept praying for vocations and the work kept growing. In 1965, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa's request to globally expand her order. Now her work spread across the world. Whether it was in Ethiopia feeding the hungry, the ghettos of South Africa or it was her native country Albania when the communist regime collapsed, Kolkata's Mother Teresa "the living saint" was there. In 1982, at the height of the siege in Beirut she convinced the parties to stop the war so she could rescue 37 sick children trapped inside. Mother Teresa went all over the world to help people, rescue children, advise her sisters; to organize and to talk. Her sisters are present in every continent serving the poor and lost.

Mother Teresa became a symbol of untiring commitment to the poor and suffering.

Today Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity has 570 missions all over the world, comprising of 4000 nuns, a brotherhood of 300 members and over100,000 lay volunteers operating homes for AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis patients; soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.

Answer 2

Mother Teresa was born August 26, 1910. She was 87 yrs. old when she passed away September 5, 1997.

Answer 3

India was her home and base of operations from 1929 until her death in 1997.