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Mother Teresa
By peace | August 18, 2008
I attended the catholic mass on 14th August 2008, the Assumption of Mary. It was an awesome sight I witnessed on that night, one of the many wonders of God’s creation I had seen ever since March 2008… It was such beautiful sky, awesome rays of LIGHT I saw, and the black cat, PUMA, ‘imitating’ the immaculate virgin birth of Mary…..
The same night, a call from an anonymous WOMAN, BioFocus International, had stirred me… The next day, somehow, I was ‘led’ to the article written by Mother Teresa about Abortion… I searched for Mother Teresa, to ‘recall’ the details biography of her (since I had read and blog about her before, but had forgotten the details).
Short Biography of Mother Teresa
Detailed Biography of Mother Teresa
I was most surprised again to see her date of death (5th September…the birthday of my niece…) … How Great Thou Art, this is the awesome wonder of GOD, who can be so GREAT to be able to plan for all these… DESTINY… this is really DESTINY….
Mother Teresa (August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950. For over forty five years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity’s expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.
By the 1970s she had become 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 honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it 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.
Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Coverage of Mother Teresa around the world has been mainly positive, and she has been praised by many individuals, governments and organisations; however, in addition to this positive reaction, she has faced a diverse range of criticism. These include objections by various non-Christians, including the atheists Christopher Hitchens and Aroup Chatterjee and the Hindu Vishva Hindu Parishad, against the proselytizing focus of her work; this included alleged baptisms of the dying, a strong pro-life stance on abortion and a belief in the spiritual goodness of poverty. Several medical journals also criticised the standard of medical care in her hospices, and concerns were raised about the opaque nature in which donated money was spent.
Early Life
Agnes Gonxha was the youngest of the children of a family from Shkodër, Albania, born to Nikola and Dranafile (Albanian for “rose”, nicknamed “Drone”) Bojaxhiu. Nikollë was involved in Albanian politics. In 1919, after a political meeting he fell ill and died when Agnes was about eight years old. After her father’s death, her mother raised her as a Roman Catholic. According to a biography by Joan Graff Clucas, in her early years Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service, and by age 12 was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister….
Declining health and death
Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems. She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity. But the nuns of the order, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order.
In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She had heart surgery, but it was clear that her health was declining. On March 13, 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity and died on September 5, 1997.
The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D’Souza, said he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission when she was first hospitalized with cardiac problems because he thought she may be under attack by the devil.
At the time of her death, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 100,000 lay volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children’s and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools…
Short Biography of Mother Teresa
Detailed Biography of Mother Teresa
Topics: All Posts, Famous People, Personal, christian |
August 19th, 2008 at 1:12 am
[…] From My Master The last time, I used my computer, the pages I was reading was about Mother Teresa, articles about Abortion, some other Saints and the Pope — I was ‘tired’ of […]