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Mother Teresa is best known for establishing a global legacy of radical compassion through the Missionaries of Charity. Starting with a single school in the slums of Kolkata, she built an organization that now operates hospices, clinics, and orphanages in over 130 countries. Distinguished by her white sari with blue borders, she became a symbol of selfless service, championing the idea that the unwanted and unloved are the most marginalized members of society.
Catholic Nun · Missionary
Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in present-day North Macedonia, Mother Teresa became one of the 20th century's most iconic figures of humanitarian aid and spiritual devotion. After receiving what she described as a 'call within a call' in 1946, she left her teaching position to live among the destitute in the slums of Kolkata (Calcutta), India. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, a Roman Catholic congregation dedicated to serving the 'poorest of the poor,' including lepers, orphans, and the dying. Her philosophy emphasized the dignity of every individual, regardless of their social standing or physical condition. While her medical practices and theological views on suffering later faced scrutiny, her impact on global awareness of poverty was profound. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta by the Catholic Church in 2016.
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"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
"The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace."
"We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence."
"Faith in action is love—and love in action is service."
"Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway."
"Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier."
"Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service."
"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."
"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."
"It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing."
"Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love."
"There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it."
"The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it."
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
"I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things."
"God doesn't require us to succeed, he only requires that you try."
"Intense love does not measure, it just gives."
"One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody."
"Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action."
"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."
"Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness."
"If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are."
"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them."
"We fear the future because we are wasting today."
"Silence is the root of our union with God and with one another."
"Do not let the past disturb you – just leave everything in the Sacred Heart, and begin again with joy."
"At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received... we will be judged by 'I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat...'"
"Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self."
"Poverty was not created by God. It is we who have caused it, you and I through our egotism."
"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls."
"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love."
"Peace begins with a smile."
Quick answers about Mother Teresa.
Her work challenges modern society to recognize the human dignity in the marginalized and the dying, moving beyond statistics to see the individual. She demonstrated that one person's commitment to a cause can mobilize global resources and shift the collective consciousness regarding poverty.
You can apply her philosophy by focusing on doing 'small things with great love' rather than being paralyzed by the inability to solve massive global problems. Look for the metaphorical 'Calcutta' in your own neighborhood—the lonely or neglected—and offer them your presence and attention.
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"Mother Teresa remains a testament to the power of enduring faith and the impact of serving the vulnerable with unwavering dedication."