Who was Mother Teresa?
A: Mother Teresa was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded
the Missionaries of Charity.
After living in Skopje for eighteen years, she moved to
where?
A: Ireland and then to India, where she lived for most of her life.
After Mother Teresa founded her religious congregation,
it grew to have how many nuns?
A: Over 4,500 and she was active in 133 countries as of
2012.
Mother Teresa received several honors, including what?
A: The 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.
When was she was canonized?
A: On 4 September 2016, and the anniversary of her death (5 September) is
her feast day.
A controversial figure during her life and after her
death, Mother Teresa was admired by many for her what?
A: Her charitable work.
She was praised and criticized on various counts, such
as for her views on what?
A: Abortion and contraception and was criticized for poor conditions in her
houses for the dying.
What was Mother Teresa's given name?
A: Anjezë Gonxhe.
When was she born?
A: She was born on 26 August 1910.
Where was she baptized the day after her birth?
A: In Skopje.
She was the youngest child of whom?
A: Nikollë and Dranafile Bojaxhiu.
Her father, who was involved in Albanian-community
politics in Ottoman Macedonia, died in 1919 when she was how old?
A: Eight.
According to a biography by Joan Graff Clucas, Anjezë
was in her early years when she became fascinated by stories of what?
A: The lives of missionaries and their service in Bengal.
By age 12, she was convinced that she should do what?
A: Commit herself to religious life.
Her resolve strengthened on 15 August 1928 as she did
what?
A: Prayed at the shrine of the Black Madonna of Vitina-Letnice, where she
often went on pilgrimages.
Anjezë left home in 1928 at age 18 to join what?
A: The Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, to learn
English with the intent of becoming a missionary.
English was the language of instruction of what?
A: The Sisters of Loreto in India.
She arrived in India in 1929 and began her novitiate in
Darjeeling, in the lower Himalayas,[25] where she learned what?
A: Bengali and taught at St. Teresa's School near her convent.
When did she take her first religious vows?
A: On 24 May 1931.
She chose to be named after whom?
A: Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries because a nun in the
convent had already chosen that name, she opted for its Spanish spelling of
Teresa.
Teresa took her solemn vows on 14 May
1937 while she
was what?
A: A teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta,
taking the style of 'Mother' as part of Loreto custom.
She served there for how long?
A: Nearly twenty years and was appointed its headmistress in 1944.
Although Mother Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school,
she was increasingly disturbed by what?
A: The poverty surrounding her in Calcutta.
In 1946, during a visit to Darjeeling by
train, Mother
Teresa felt that she heard the call of her inner conscience to do what?
A: To serve the poor of India for
Jesus.
She asked for and received permission to do what?
A: To leave the school.
In 1950 what did she found?
A: The Missionaries of Charity, choosing a white sari with two blue borders
as the order's habit.
When did she begin missionary work with the poor?
A: In 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple, white
cotton sari with a blue border.
Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent several
months in Patna to receive basic medical training at Holy Family Hospital
and did what?
A: Ventured into the slums.
She founded a school in Motijhil, Calcutta, before she
began doing what?
A: Tending to the poor and hungry.
With no income, she begged for
food and supplies and
experienced what?
A: Doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent
life during these early months.
In 1952, Mother Teresa opened her first what?
A: Hospice with help from Calcutta officials.
She converted an abandoned
Hindu temple into what?
A: The Kalighat Home for the Dying, free for the poor, and renamed it
Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart.
Those brought to the home received what?
A: Medical attention and the opportunity to die with dignity in accordance
with their faith.
She opened a hospice for those with what?
A: Leprosy, calling it Shanti Nagar (City of Peace).
Mother Teresa had a heart attack in Rome in 1983 while
she was doing what?
A: Visiting Pope John Paul II.
Following a second attack in 1989, she received what?
A: A pacemaker.
In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell, breaking her what?
A: Her collarbone, and four months later she had malaria and heart failure.
According to Archbishop of Calcutta Henry Sebastian
D'Souza, he ordered a priest to perform what?
A: An exorcism (with her permission) when she was first hospitalized with
cardiac problems because he thought she might be under attack by the devil.
When did she die?
A: On 5 September.