BLESSED ARE THE POOR

     Anges Gonxha Bojaxhu was born on Aug 26, 1910 in what was then the Ottoman Empire, and is now part of Macedonia. Her father died when she was only eight years old and her mother raised her as a member of the Roman Catholic religion. She was fascinated by stories of missionaries and by the time she was 12 year old, that is what she decided she wanted to do with her life.

     She left home when she was 18 and journeyed to Ireland where she was to learn the English language in order to teach school as part of her mission. In 1929, she traveled to India to teach. She learned the Bengali language and eventually rose to the position of headmistress at the school where she taught.

     Even though she loved teaching, Agnes was troubled deeply by the extreme poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. While on a train bound for an annual retreat, she said she was called to help the poor by living among them. She left the convent, and went out among the poor and homeless. She chose to wear a simple white sari with a blue border instead of the traditional habit of the nuns. She became an Indian citizen, received basic medical training from the Holy Family hospital, and moved out into the slums. It was there that she started a school, and then began tending to the needs of the destitute and needy.

     She was joined by a small group of nuns in 1949, and faced great hardships in their first year, resorting to begging for food and supplies. She was tempted to return to the convent and the comfort that it could provide, but was convinced that to do so was to admit failure.

     At that point, she wrote the following in her diary, “Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.”

     She received permission from the Vatican to start what was to become the Missionaries of Charity, whose mission according to her words was to care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."  She was looking for the “lost edges” of society by living among them and living like them.

     She started the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta with 13 nuns in 1950, and by 2007, the mission had over 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns worldwide. They operate 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.

     In 1952, she opened the first home that provided dignity for people who were dying. Her Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart, was a free hospice for the poor. People brought there were given the opportunity to die with dignity according to their own faith. The Quran was read to those that were Muslims, water from the Ganges was brought to Hindus, and Catholics were given the Last Rites. She said, “"A beautiful death is for people who lived like animals to die like angels—loved and wanted."

     This wonderful woman, who only wanted to ease the burden of the lost edges of the world and bring them the love and caring that they deserved, died on September 5, 1997. She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhu, but the world knew her as Mother Teresa.