Mother Teresa, the true preacher of love and peace, is regarded as the greatest social worker in modern times. Through her selfless service of the poor and the sick, she had not only won the hearts of all Indians but of the people of whole world. In reality, she was a woman of God who devoted her whole life in serving the poorest of the poor and practising love in action. The words of Khushwant Singh, the eminent journalist, “Mother Teresa is a lady of slumps…the champion of the poor…apostle of the unwanted…the Angel of Mercy…the Saint of the gutters…the gentle mother”, are most appropriate for her. She was probably the only person who had been given a pass by the Indian Railways to travel free wherever she likes. Children in far-away European Countries and the USA save their pocket money and forgo their glass of milk to be able to send some thing to her organization. For her noble work for humanity she was awarded with Bharat Ratna, and also the Nobel Peace Award, the greatest International Award.

Mother Teresa was born on 27th August 1910, at Skopje (Albania), then a part of former Yugoslavia. Her real name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Her father was a shopkeeper. She spent her early years in Yugoslavia. From her childhood she had a desire to help the poor and this urged her to become a nun of the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 18. After training as an aspirant at the Loreto Abbey in Dublin, she joined the Loreto Convent in Ireland in 1928. At that time a group of Christian missionaries of Yugoslavia was working in India for humanitarian services. The missionaries sent a letter to their country seeking help from their country for the poverty stricken people of India. On reading this appeal, Agnes felt an overwhelming desire to serve the helpless and sick and came to India in 1929 at the age of 19 where she took her final vow as a nun.

On 26th January 1929, Agnes arrived in Kolkata. She became a teacher at St. Mary’s High School in Kolkata in the same year and later became the Principal of that school. In 1931 she adopted the name Teresa. Her teaching career offered her opportunities to experience the misery of the poor in the slum areas of Kolkata.  Unwed mothers, abandoned babies, destitute of every sort were all very common. Numbers of people suffering from diseases were laying in the streets every day with no one to care for them. Teresa with her students did their best to reduce their miseries. But this did not satisfy her, she realized the necessity of her personal commitment to the poor and she firmly decided to act.

In 1946, Teresa felt she must leave and go to the slums. She applied the Pope of Rome for permission to go out as a free nun. She went to Patna, Bihar for six months intensive training in nursing with the American Medical Missionary Sisters. In 1948 she obtained the permission from Pope to leave the Convent.

With only five rupees in hand Teresa went to the streets of Kolkata to work for the poor and needy. She lovingly collected some slum children, washed them and began to teach them under a tree. She also began collecting abandoned children to teach them hygiene, prescribing medicines for the sick, bringing food. Teresa took Indian citizenship in 1948. She opened her first school in Kolkata with 21 children on December 28, 1948.

The news of Teresa’s activities began to spread far and wide. Many kind and generous people provided her support. Girls from all over world and India came at her sincere call to love and serve. On October 7, 1950 she brought them all under one banner and started The Missionaries of Charity. Their members are dedicated to free service to the poor and look after the unwanted, the abandoned and the unloved. Very soon Teresa became popular as Mother Teresa.  In 1952 Mother Teresa founded the first home for the dying destitutes, known as Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) in Kolkata. For the poor, sick, retarded and orphaned, Mother opened the Sishu Bhawan in 1955. Here the undernourished children of poor parents stayed for temporary period but the crippled and abandoned children were looked after permanently.

Mother Teresa’s next venture was for the leprosy patients. She opened a Leprosy clinic 1957. The government of West Bengal provided her 34 acres of land at Asansol for the rehabilitation of the leprosy-afflicted families. Mother called it Shanti Nagar-Abode of peace. In 1961, the government of India awarded Mother Padamshri. In 1963 Mother for men also founded a parallel institution- the Missionaries Brothers of Charity. The government of Philippines honoured her with the prestigious Magsaysay Award in the year of 1963 for her humanitarian services.

The year 1971 brought her two other popular International awards-Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (Rs. 1.9 lakhs) and Joseph Kennedy Foundation Award. With the prize money, she started a model colony for the leprosy patients in West Bengal. In the year 1972 Mother Teresa was given the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. Six months later in April 1973 she was winner of the Templeton Award (Britain). She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. The government of India honored the great mother with its highest Civilian Award Bharat Ratna in 1980. In 1993 Mother again awarded with the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhawana Award. Awards, prizes and recognitions of all sorts were coming at her door almost every day. But she had  not taken a one-rupee coin from that; she utilized the entire prize money in the service of the poor, sick and helpless people. 

The Greatest mother, symbol of love, peace and sacrifice- Mother Teresa bade farewell to the country and to the people whom she loved most-the poorest of the poor at 9.30 pm on September 5, 1997. She will remain in the heart of each and every Indians for ever as our great and beloved mother.