Gary Lee Ryon, Jr. Memorial Foundation, Inc.
Mother Teresa, known today as Saint Teresa of Calcutta inspires me to seek a closer relationship with God. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, then a part of the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, on August 26, 1910. Teresa was baptized in Skopje, the day after her birth yet she later considered August 27, the day she was baptized to be her “true birthday”. By the age of twelve, she was convinced that she should commit herself to religious life. After arriving in India in 1929, she began her novitiate in Darjeeling, in the lower Himalayas. The town of Darjeeling is where she learned the Bengali language consequently teaching at Saint Teresa’s School near her convent. Teresa took her first religious vows on May 24, 1931 and appropriately chose to be named after Thérèse…show more content… A nun in her convent had already chosen the name Thérèse so she opted for its Spanish spelling Teresa. Taking her dignified vows in May 1937, while teaching at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta, where Mother Teresa served for nearly twenty years eventually being appointed headmistress in 1944. In 1950, Teresa branched out from the main convent and started a religious congregation which became the Missionaries of Charity. In her own words the purpose of the Missionaries of Charity was to care for “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” She built the congregation from scratch consequently in her lifetime, there were 610 missionaries operating in one hundred twenty three countries being managed by more than 4,000 nuns. It was Teresa’s mission, dedicating her life and energy to provide loving care
