Mother Teresa (Gonxhe Bojaxhiu), honorary sister of the Catholic Church, humanist, passed away in Calcutta, India. She was born in Skopje, in the Bojaxhiu family of Prizren. She was baptized in the Cathedral of the Heart of Christ in Skopje. She made the decision to become an “honorary sister” in 1928, in Letnica of Vitia, where there is a Saint of Our Lady, for whom Mother Teresa had a special feeling of admiration and devotion. She entered the Institute of Our Lady of the River, otherwise known as the “Sisters of Loreto”, in Ireland. There she took the name Sister Mary Teresa, in honor of Saint Teresa of the Christ Child. In December of the same year, she left for India, in Calcutta. In May 1931, she was sent to the community of Loreto, Entali, where she taught at the school for girls, St. Mary. For a while she worked as a professor of history and geography and later as the director of a school for girls, but all the time she was attracted to work with the poor, the sick and the abandoned. In 1950, the Vatican approved the regular community “Missionaries of Love”, through which Mother Teresa carried out tireless works of charity, humanity, peace, and love in Calcutta and then everywhere else in the world, spreading the spirit of humanity, love and care for the downtrodden of the world. After Calcutta, other houses were founded in Rome and Tanzania and, a little later, on all continents. Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, Mother Teresa opened mission houses in almost all communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania, and Cuba. Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 in Oslo. When she received the award, she said: “In terms of blood and ancestry, I am Albanian. I am Indian by nationality. According to the vocation, I am a regular Catholic and belong to the whole world. My heart belongs to the heart of Jesus.” In 1990, she was declared an “Honorary Member” of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Kosovo and throughout the 70s and 90s, she visited Kosovo five times, while in 1993, together with Pope John Paul II, she visited Albania. In 1997, she received the “Gold Medal of the American Congress” and was declared an “Honorary Citizen” of America. She became an icon of the century, receiving the epithet “Holy Mother”. Her activity became an inspiration for many missionaries around the world. The “Missionaries of Love” have dozens of houses and thousands of honorary sisters. She passed away and was buried in Calcutta, India, at the age of 87. (In the photo: Saint Teresa)
Text: The encyclopedic dictionary of Kosovo – Vol. II, Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Prishtina, 2018, page 1184–1185.
Graphic processing: AHCF
