“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.”
- Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa (born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) was born August the 26th 1910 in Macedonia. Her childhood and upbringing helped become into the person she was. Where Mother Teresa was born, it was a violent a brutal place. Most people born into this place had an unsettled future. Agnes particularly remembered helping her mother wash an alcoholic woman and visiting a mother of six in her dying days as a little girl. She described these moments as precious times in her life which helped her into the person she was. Since the age of 12 she wanted to devout her life to God. At the age of 18 she left her parental home and joined the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary.
In 1947, Mother Teresa found a hut and there she started using this as a classroom where she taught and support children in need. By the time Mother Teresa was 39 years of age,
she had 3 followers. By 1962 she started gaining international
recognition for her work with the poor and received many
awards with cash prizes she could use to further her goals.
After she was documented and written about in ‘Something Beautiful for God’ by Malcolm Muggeridge she had been recognized for her works with the poor. In 1979, Mother Teresa had won the Nobel Peace Prize which was highly recognized and this grew her popularity. Mother Teresa was also recognized for her preaching on anti-abortion. In her lifetime serving the poor in Calcutta India, she saved over 3,000 children from abortions and gave them to loving new parents.
So how was Mother Teresa a leader? Well firstly you have to be recognized to be a good leader or people won’t listen to you Mother Teresa was very famous until her death in 1998. Mother Teresa focused on faith in the smallest things rather than focusing on big visions. While we think about loving the whole world, she urges us to love our neighbour. While we focus on doing great things, she focuses on doing small things with love. Instead of focusing on saving the whole world from poverty, she helped one person at a time from having an abortion and it made a major effect overall. Mother Teresa sacrificed so much which shows a good leader. A leader should have more love for others than for self. Mother Teresa was known as a woman who was strongly against abortion. She preached her perspective on abortion with good communication skills, which all leaders should have, which changed people’s minds on pro-life. In the eye of a Catholic, Mother Teresa was seen as a saint and holy woman from God. But she was also acknowledged for her love of all people, not mattering what religion they were. She mostly helped people in Calcutta India, although they were mostly Hindu.
1928: Becomes novitiate in Loretto order, which ran mission schools in India, and takes name Sister Teresa.
1937: Takes final vows as a nun.
1946: While riding a train to the mountain town of Darjeeling to recover from suspected tuberculosis, she said she received a calling from God "to serve him among the poorest of the poor."
1947: Permitted to leave her order and moves to Calcutta's slums to set up her first school.
1950: Founds the order of Missionaries of Charity.
1952: Opens NirmalHriday, or "Pure Heart," a home for the dying, followed next year by her first orphanage.
1962: Wins her first prize for her humanitarian work: the PadmaShri award for distinguished service.
1979: Wins Nobel Peace Prize.
1982: Persuades Israelis and Palestinians to stop shooting long enough to rescue 37 retarded children from a hospital in besieged Beirut.
1985: Awarded Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award.
1996: November 16, receives honorary U.S. citizenship.
1997: March 13, steps down as head of her order.
Websites:
Books:
‘Mother Teresa’ by Margaret K. McElderry
‘Mother Teresa, Beyond the Image’ by Anne Sebba
Movies:
‘Mother Teresa’ directed by Fabrizio Costa