According to , Works of Love are Works of Peace, by Michael Collopy, Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, in the former Yugoslavia, she was the youngest of three children. In her teens, Agnes became a member of a youth group in her local parish called Sodality. Through her involvement with their activities guided by a Jesuit priest, Agnes became interested in missionaries. At age 17, she responded to her first call of a vocation as a Catholic missionary nun. She joined an Irish order, the Sisters of Loretto, a community known for their missionary work in India. When she took her vows as a Sister of Loretto, she chose the name Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
In Calcutta, Sister Teresa taught geography and catechism at St. Mary's High School. In 1944, she became the principal of St. Mary's. Soon Sister Teresa contracted tuberculosis, was unable to continue teaching and was sent to Darjeeling for rest and recuperation. It was on the train to Darjeeling that she received her second call -- "the call within the call". Mother Teresa recalled later, "I was to leave the convent and work with the poor, living among them. It was an order. I knew where I belonged but I did not know how to get there." Mother Teresa started with a school in the slums to teach the children of the poor. She also learned basic medicine and went into the homes of the sick to treat them. In 1949, some of her former pupils joined her. They found men, women, and children dying on the streets who were rejected by local hospitals. The group rented a room so they could care for helpless people otherwise condemned to die in the gutter. In 1950, the group was established by the Church as a Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese. It was known as the Missionaries of Charity.
I admired her for her courage and strength. She was not afraid to live a life of radical poverty and service and to dare the world to do the same. Leaders of countries, prestigious universities and organizations received uncompromising challenges from her on issues of human dignity, chastity, respect for the unborn and the impoverished. She knew there was nothing lasting about the material possessions that we strive for and cling to. And she was quick to point out that some of the richest nations in the world, are the most spiritually poor. Her example was loud and clear. She is an inspiration to devotion and purity of heart (Lester, 2004).


(2002)."Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997)". Vatican News Service. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
Lester, Meera (2004). Saints' Blessings By Meera Lester Saints' Blessing. Fair Winds. pp. 138. ISBN 1592330452. http://books.google.com/books?id=HSg6f3JaN1IC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=Nikolle+bojaxhiu&source=web&ots=bCgwkpbTe7&sig=sIXUKONOEt1BcY9DtqkJcg_NQfM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result Saints' Blessings By Meera Lester. Retrieved February, 16 2010.
(2005). Collopy, Michael. Works of Love are Works of Peace. Harper Collins.