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Saint Teresa of Calcutta made a significant impact on Christian spiritual thought and practice in the twentieth century by dedicating her entire life to serving the poorest of the poor.1 Her spirituality is based on the premise that through serving the marginalised and disenfranchised in our society we are in essence ministering to Christ and consequently helping to 'quench his thirst'. Her effective work made her one of the most highly respected and venerated figures of recent times,2 and it made her a readily acknowledged saint by Christians and non-Christians alike. She generated a tremendous amount of publicity by her determination to help the poor and to love the unwanted, the most vulnerable in society. At times she was criticised unfairly by some people regarding her conservative stance on issues, her fundraising activities and her effectiveness in dealing with the issue of poverty. Nevertheless strong yardsticks of her success are the countless awards she received and her ability to establish a dynamic congregation of 4500 dedicated nuns, active in over 130 countries, who continue to make a real difference to our world.3
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu ('Gonxha' means 'flower bud') was born in Skopje (in present day Macedonia) in 1910 as one of three children in a committed Catholic family.4 Her country, a melting pot of religious belief and culture, was one that experienced tremendous political turmoil, and it is strongly believed this is what led to the suspicious death of her father when she was just eight years old. From that tumultuous time her devout mother raised the family, ensuring she passed the faith onto her children. Her youngest daughter, Agnes, believed she had a calling to the religious life at the tender age of twelve. When she reached eighteen, she left her family, never to see them again, to become a missionary nun in the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Loreto Sisters). Thence, she adopted the name of Teresa in honour of her patron, St Therese of the Child Jesus. Her religious training was completed in Ireland before she moved to India to become a teacher of geography at a girls' high school, in 1929, in Calcutta. Mother Teresa, as she later became known, then received 'a calling within a calling'...