This year marks the 112th birth anniversary of Mother Teresa, the founder of Missionaries of Charity, who at the age of 18 decided to devote her entire life to working for poor and downtrodden people.
Mother Teresa, born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, founded the Missionaries of Charity in the year 1950, an organization solely dedicated to charitable work in Kolkata for those who had no family or anyone to look after. In only 15 years, this charitable society became an international religious family across the world.
Let's have a look at a few interesting facts and quotes by Mother Teresa on her 112th birth anniversary.
Mother Teresa 112th Birth Anniversary: Interesting Facts
The world will be celebrating the 112th birth anniversary of Mother Teresa this year. Here are some interesting facts about the saint who inspired the world:
Mother Teresa’s original name was Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu which meant 'a little flower'. She had left her family at the age of 18 with the aim to devote her life to working for the poor and homeless.
It was in the year 1929 that she arrived in India at the age of 19. She began her novitiate – a training a Christian novice undergoes before taking her vows – in Darjeeling. She took her religious vows on 24 May 1931.
Mother Teresa had also learned Bengali. She taught at St Teresa’s School near her Convent. She got deeply disturbed by the poverty in Calcutta and, in 1948, began her missionary work and started wearing her traditional white cotton saree with blue borders.
Mother Teresa had rescued 37 children trapped in a front-line hospital by a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Palestine.
Mother Teresa was awarded over 120 honours, including the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work in 1979 and the Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize in 1962.
Mother Teresa was fluent in English, Hindi, Bengali, Albanian, and Serbian.
Mother Teresa 112th Birth Anniversary: Inspiring Quotes
Here are a few inspiring quotes by Mother Teresa:
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
“Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”
“Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely, and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.”
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