Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997)

Mother Teresa’s original name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She always wrote her birthday as the 27th of August because that was the day of her baptism, which was always more important to her than her own birth.

At the age of 18 she left her parental home in Macedonia and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months' training she was sent to India where she took her initial vows as a nun. The suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.

She dedicated every day of her adult life to caring for "The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, and the unloved".

Mother Teresa's work has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world. She has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding .