14.04.2016 Views

Indian Christianity

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN<br />

MOTHER TERESA<br />

Mother Teresa of Kalighat, Calcutta.<br />

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you<br />

welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me." Then<br />

the righteous will answer him and say, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or see you<br />

thisty and give you drink?".. The king will say to them in reply, "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did to<br />

one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me."Matthew 25: 35-40<br />

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (gonxha meaning "rosebud" or "little flower" in Albanian) was born on 26 August<br />

1910, in Üsküb, Ottoman Empire (now Skopje, capital of the Republic of Macedonia). She left home at<br />

age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister.<br />

Agnes initially went to the Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, to learn English, the language the<br />

Sisters of Loreto used to teach school children in India. She arrived in India in 1929, and began her<br />

novitiate in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains, where she learnt Bengali and taught at the St.<br />

Teresa’s School, a schoolhouse close to her convent. She took her first religious vows as a nun on 24<br />

May 1931. At that time she chose to be named Teresa.<br />

She took her solemn vows on 14 May 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in<br />

Entally, eastern Calcutta. Teresa served there for almost twenty years and in 1944 was appointed<br />

headmistress.<br />

244

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!