Remarkable Women in History:

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, (best known to the world as Mother Teresa of Calcutta) was born on August.26.1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. When she was only twelve she felt the calling of God strongly, and knew she would become a missionary be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months of training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she saw outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she was given permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.

Despite having no funds she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.

On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy “The Missionaries of Charity”, whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.

Today the order consists of active and Contemplative branches of Sisters and Brothers in many countries. In 1963 both the Contemplative branch of the Sisters and the Active branch of the Brothers was founded. In 1979 the Contemplative branch of the Brothers was added, and in 1984 the Priest branch was established.

In the years since it’s founding The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. The Society of Missionaries provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics…