Ludwig van Beethoven

Mother Teresa was born as Agnese Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She chose the name Teresa after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries, after she took her first religious vows as a nun on May 24, 1931. She was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta) in India in 1950. She dedicated her whole life to helping the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then throughout other countries.

In 1962, she was awarded the Padma Shri - an award given by the Indian government to recognize contributions to various activities - and the Philipine-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. By 1970s, she was internationally famed for being a humanitarian and an advocate for the poor and the helpless. Paul VI gave her the first Pope John XIII Peace Prize in 1971. She received the Jawaharlal Award for international understanding in 1972. In 1976, she received the Pacem in Terris Award. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. She was appointed the honorary Companion of the Order of Australia in 1982 and the Order of Merit in 1983 from the United Kingdom. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1994, she was granted the Golden Honour of the Nation her Albainian homeland. She was granted citizenship in the U.S. on November 16, 1996.

At the time of her death in 1997, Missionaries of Charity was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages and schools.

She was praised by many individuals, governments, and organizations, many of which follow in her footsteps to help better the world and helping those in need. However, despite her work, she received a diverse range of criticism including objections by various individuals and groups against the proselytizing focus of her work - a conversion to a new religion or deity. Several medical journals also criticized the standard of medical care in her hospices and concerns were raised in the nature in which donated money was spent.

Despite the criticisms of her work, following her death, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

A few interesting facts of her famous humanitarian acts are as follows:

• She brokered a temporary cease-fire in the Seige of Beirut between the Israeli army and the Palestinian guerrillas to rescue 37 children trapped in a front line hospital. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she evacuated the 37 children.
• When Mother Teresa first started her work, she had no money, food, or supplies and she had to resort to begging for these things from charity and anyone who would lend them to her. She wrote the following in her diary:
  Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.


• In 1990, after being diagnosed with several heart conditions and having become injured severely several times, she asked to resign as head of the Missionaries of Charity but was voted back once again as Superior General.
• It takes nine years become a full member of the Missionaries of Charity.

She was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary, and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. (Wikipedia)

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