President Murmu visits memorial of Mother Teresa in Skopje

• President Droupadi Murmu along with President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova of North Macedonia visited the Memorial of Mother Teresa in Skopje on July 22. 

Key points on Mother Teresa:

• Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Uskup, Ottoman Empire (now Skopje, North Macedonia), on August 26, 1910. 

• At the age of 18 she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. 

• After a few months’ training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. 

• From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta (now Kolkata).

• The suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her.

• In 1948, she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. 

• On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, “The Missionaries of Charity”, whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. 

• In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.

• The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world.

• They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees.

• Mother Teresa’s work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). 

• Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work “for bringing help to suffering humanity”.

• In 1980, the Indian government awarded her the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the country, for exceptional humanitarian work and selfless service.

• She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.

• She passed away in Kolkata on September 5, 1997.