Mother Teresa: Healer To The World
At the time of her death, Missionaries of Charity was operating 610 missions in 123 countries. Apart from providing aid to the needy, orphans and old-aged, it was also helping people with leprosy, AIDS, and tuberculosis. To achieve such massive scales of operation is a tremendous feat. What Mother Teresa has done in her lifetime is nothing short of a miracle. How has she managed to do this? What made her do this? Let’s find out.
How did it all start?
Well, according to a biography of hers, Mother Teresa was very fascinated by stories of missionaries and their work in Bengal. This was at the tender age of 12. Later, she went on a pilgrimage when she was 18 and then left home to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. Did you know that she never saw her mother or sister again?
What difficulties did Mother Teresa face in her early years?
After joining the Sisters of Loreto, Mother Teresa served as a teacher at a convent school for nearly 20 years. Have you heard of the Bengal famine of 1943? And the Hindu/Muslim violence that plagued the state in 1946? These two crushed the city into poverty, sickness and death. In Calcutta, she started a school and also helped the poor and starving. She personally ventured out into the slums to give aid to suffering people? Mind you, the suffering and pain does not end here. To make things worse, Mother Teresa had no income. Food and supplies were scarce and she had to resort to begging. Despite all these troubles, ignoring the temptation to return to the comfortable convent life, Mother Teresa stood strong and committed.
Missionaries of Charity – What paved the way?
For the sake of some trivia, the Missionaries of Charity was started in 1950 with a team of about 13 members. Today, it has over 4000 nuns running centres and orphanages looking after the poor, sick, needy and much more. Talk about growth! Mother Teresa made Calcutta her base and dedicated her life to this mission. To give you an idea of how vast their reach was, the Missionaries of Charity tended after poor, homeless, orphans, blind, sick, crippled and dying. They also looked after and treated people suffering from leprosy and AIDS.
