Mother Teresa gave her life to helping the sick in the slums of India.

She was born in 1910 in Skopje (a town in Macedonia). Her name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, and her parents were greengrocers. At school she got interested in working abroad.

When she was 18 she decided to become a nun. She joined a convent in Ireland, then went to teach in a school they ran in Calcutta, India. Eventually she became head teacher of the school. She changed her name to Teresa, in honour of a Spanish saint.

In 1946 she caught TB and went by train to be treated. On the train she heard God calling her to work with the poorest people in India. When she was well she left the school and did a medical training course. She then went into the slums in Calcutta to start a new school for children. They called her 'Mother Teresa'.


The slums of Calcutta is one of the poorest places in the world. The sick and dying are often forced to live on the streets. There are many orphan children. Illness and disease is everywhere.

In 1950 she started her own group of nuns, called the Missionaries of Charity. Their work was to provide free help to the poorest of the poor. In 1952 she opened a home for dying homeless people, and soon afterwards she opened an orphanage. Over time they opened more homes for the sick and dying, in India and in other countries. They even help the homeless in London.

Mother Teresa gave everything she had to help the poor. All the money she had was given to her work. Even when she was given a car she sold it and used to money to set up a home for lepers. Even though she suffered a serious heart attack in 1990, she carried on working. In September 1997, at 87 years old, she died.


Today there are over 4,000 nuns in the Missionaries of Charity, and many other helpers. They run over 400 centres for the poor.

Mother Teresa lived her life showing Gods love to other people. Jesus said there are two most important rules for life. The first is 'Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'. The second is 'Love your neighbour as yourself'. Mother Teresa loved God and loved her neighbour, and she showed it in the way she lived.