AOL Research & Learn
Encyclopedia

Teresa, Mother

Teresa, Mother, 1910–97, Roman Catholic missionary in India, winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, b. Skopje (now in Macedonia) as Agnes Goxha Bojaxhiu. Of Albanian parentage, she went to India at 17, becoming a nun and teaching school in Calcutta (now Kolkata). In 1948 she left the convent and founded the Missionaries of Charity, which now operates schools, hospitals, orphanages, and food centers worldwide. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003.

See her writings in In My Own Words (1996, comp. by J. L. González-Balado) and her letters in Come Be My Light (2007, ed. by B. Kolodiejchuk).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

More on Mother Teresa from Fact Monster:

  • Nobel Prize History - History of the world's most famous prizes
  • Famous and Infamous Moms - Famous and Infamous Moms Mother Teresa, Rose Kennedy, and other notable mothers by Beth Rowen ...
  • 1997 World History - 1997 World History Hale-Bopp Comet NASA Mother Teresa (1910–1997) Archive Photos Princess ...
  • Mother Teresa - Biography of Mother Teresa, Humanitarian nun of Calcutta, called "The Saint of the Gutters"
  • This Day in History: September 5 - September 5 1698 Russias Peter the Great levied a tax on bearded men. 1774 The first Continental ...

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches: General Biographies
© 2000–2008 Pearson Education, publishing as Fact Monster