Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu

Mother Teresa

Saint of the Slums

Overview

Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997) — Albanian Catholic, Loreto sister, teacher at St. Mary's Entally — heard in 1946 a "call within a call" on a Darjeeling train: to leave the convent school for the slums. In December 1948 she walked into Motijhil with no funds and an open-air school; on 7 October 1950 Rome authorised the Missionaries of Charity, in the white sari with blue borders now known worldwide.

Key Facts

• Born: 26 August 1910, Skopje (baptised 27 August); arrived Kolkata January 1929
• Order: Missionaries of Charity — serving "the poorest of the poor"; fourth vow of wholehearted free service
• Nobel Peace Prize: 1979 — refused the banquet, asking its cost be given to the poor
• Died: 5 September 1997, Mother House; state funeral 13 September; buried on site
• Sainthood: beatified 2003 (John Paul II), canonised 4 September 2016 (Francis); feast 5 September; co-patron of Calcutta Archdiocese (2017)

Works

• Nirmal Hriday (Kalighat Home for the Dying, 1952) — the dying received care "to die like angels — loved and wanted," each by their own faith's rites
• Homes for HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis patients; orphanages; soup kitchens; mobile clinics; schools — 5,076 sisters in 754 missions across 138 countries (2025)
• Daily Mass at Mother House chapel (6 AM); Friday tomb Mass for petitioners; volunteers received from across the globe

In India

• Tomb and rooms preserved at Mother House — pilgrimage site for people of all faiths and none
• Her life is frankly debated (care standards in her homes are criticised in some accounts) — this entry records the devotion she inspires and the facts above, leaving polemics to other shelves
• Kolkata's September 5 feast fills the Mother House lanes; Skopje and the Vatican keep parallel celebrations