What do many people dream about? About fame and prosperity, about living a bright life interesting life, about having a car no worse than the neighbor's... She dreamed of serving the poor, feeding the hungry and calming the suffering. Mother Teresa's life is simply amazing and unique. People like her are born once every thousand years. Her memory will live on for a very long time, her good deeds are continued by her followers, and her shelters and hospitals for the poor operate all over the world. Who is she

Biography. The beginning of the way

In Macedonia, in the city of Skopje, on August 26, 1910, a girl, Agnes, was born into an Albanian family. Her father Nicola and mother Dranfile were Catholics. Deeply pious, they regularly attended church and devoted much time to prayer and charity.

Agnes' father died under mysterious circumstances in 1919. The mother was left with three children in her arms. Accustomed to prosperity, the orphaned family had a difficult time at first. But Dranfile did not despair. She began to earn her living by sewing and embroidery, and not only led a comfortable life with her children, but also continued to help the poor.

Agnes Gonja Boyadji was a pretty, obedient and smart girl. She helped her mother, sang in the church choir, and wrote poetry. But from the age of 12 she knew that she wanted to devote her life to God. At the age of 17, she asked her mother for her blessing to become a nun. Dranfile experienced a real shock. She realized that she would never see Agnes again, and with all her heart she did not want this separation. However, after a night spent in thought and prayer, she nevertheless went to meet her daughter halfway and blessed her for holy deeds.

On September 26, 1928, it was no longer Agnes, but Mother Teresa, who set off across the Indian Ocean to Calcutta in Loretto. short biography is not able to capture the gigantic power of her deeds, her inexhaustible mercy and unconditional faith in Jesus.

Service

Having reached the monastery of the Order of Loreto, Sister Teresa became a teacher. She taught children history and natural history lessons, worked with those who were behind, and prayed a lot. She sang in the church choir, earned respect and honor, and took the post of director of one of the schools. This went on for 16 years. And then the nun achieved approval from Rome to become a free missionary and left the order on August 16, 1948.

She didn’t need anything, easily coped with her responsibilities, was happy with her life, and suddenly decided to give up everything. Why did Mother Teresa do this? Her short biography testifies that the nun listened only to the dictates of her soul, who wished to completely devote her life to God - the “King of the whole world.”

Who is Mother Teresa

This is a nun who, following the dictates of her heart, abandoned the comforts and peace of life in the community, instead bought a cheap white sari and stepped into the slums of Calcutta.

Here a nightmare awaited her - stinking dirty streets, hungry beggars, rotting bodies, the hopelessness of the dying, ragged children thrown into the street and other horrors. The first impression plunged the nun into shock; she ran away to her monastery with tears and turned her gaze to God. Mother Teresa's prayer was simple. She asked the Almighty for strength to fulfill what He intended her to do. God responded to the fervent, sincere appeal. The nun's heart was filled with determination, courage and ardent love for all the disadvantaged and forgotten. In them she saw Christ, literally fulfilling the commandments of the Bible.

Returning to the street, the missionary began to help the poor. She obtained from the local authorities a large house, which had previously been a barn, cleaned it to a shine and began bringing the dying people there from the streets. Drug addicts, cancer and AIDS patients, lepers - everyone received care, shelter and food in their last days. Babies thrown into trash bins and unwanted old people also found a home here.

Mother Teresa got up at 4 in the morning, prepared food for hundreds of people in need, washed, washed, and cleaned. She did all this hard and monotonous work with a smile and boundless patience. Soon, inspired by her example, other nuns began to join the missionary. The Helpers also saw their calling as serving the poorest of the poor in the name of Christ.

Who is Mother Teresa? “I am a pencil in the hands of the Lord,” she answered this question.

Fruits of mercy

Over the years of tireless work, the Order of Missionaries of Charity has grown. In 1965 there were 300 sisters; today there are several thousand. Hospitals, shelters, schools are open all over the world. Mother Teresa often traveled to planets, called for peace, spoke out against abortion, condemned feminists and did not accept sexual minorities under any pretext, considering them a disgusting fall from grace, and called AIDS a heavenly punishment for homosexual relations.

Who is Mother Teresa? This is a woman who called love the greatest feeling. She received several international awards for her charitable work, including the Nobel Prize.

She taught that one must always show kindness, tolerance and understanding, that there should be no place in the heart for revenge and hatred, that only faith and love can save the world.

After her death - on September 5, 1997 - she was canonized. Her business is alive and growing. Millions of followers who admired the spirituality of this little woman took up the baton of mercy from her.

Mother Teresa, in the world Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born on August 27, 1910 in Macedonia. Her family was Albanian and very religious. Since childhood, the girl sang in the church choir, and at the age of 12 she decided to become a missionary. When she turned 18, Agnes went to Ireland and entered the Abbey of the Sisters of Loretto.

She took the name Sister Teresa in honor of the patroness of the poor, Teresa, a 16th-century hermit. Sister Teresa went to India and began teaching history and geography at a convent school in Calcutta, then became the director of this school. The legendary nun's disciples say that one day she heard a voice commanding her to leave her job and follow Christ into the slums to serve the poor. So she did - without doubt or hesitation, although this had never happened before in the history of Catholicism - nuns always lived only in monasteries. Teresa was allowed a special path by the Pope himself, to whom she addressed an unusual request in a letter.

Mother Teresa always said that when any person suffers, Jesus suffers in him. So she took off her monastic robes and put on an Indian sari with a blue border. Then such clothes will become the uniform of the sisters of the Order of Mercy. Mother Teresa learned Hindi and Bengali and received Indian citizenship. She thereby emphasized that she shared everything with the people of the country where she did good. She sincerely believed that she was a mother to all people in this world and the people of India in particular. That was the only way the poor, grateful for the mercy and care, called her.

In 1950, Mother Teresa created the Order of Charity in Calcutta. Under his auspices, over 50 schools were opened for children and the poor not only in India, but also in other countries. Mother Teresa also founded a leper colony, a shelter for the elderly, a hospital for the disabled, and many shelters for the homeless and people with physical disabilities.

She cared for sick and helpless people in 115 countries, and also helped Russians by sending sisters of her order to our country after the Chernobyl accident. Mother Teresa believed that the worst evil is indifference. She tried to help people as much as possible, because she believed that God does not need human suffering. Many countries presented this amazing woman with numerous awards, which she spent on charity. Moreover, the nun did not advertise these actions; she parted with the gifts secretly. For example, she sold a car presented by the Pope himself and used the proceeds to create another center for leprosy patients. The same fate befell the money received as the Nobel Peace Prize - Mother Teresa donated all 190 thousand dollars for the construction of a leper colony.

The daily routine in Teresa's institutions was very strict - the sisters got up at 5 in the morning, prayed, had a light breakfast and in pairs went to the slums, leper colonies, shelters and hospitals, tuberculosis clinics. Everyone worked for free, seven days a week, and went to bed at 10 pm, after evening prayer. There were no air conditioners or heating units, radio or television, vacuum cleaners or other technical devices that provided comfort: Mother Teresa spent every extra penny to help the poor.

One journalist who stayed with the sisters of the order for several days said: “I wouldn’t do all this for a million dollars!” Mother Teresa replied: “I wouldn’t do it for a million, only for free, out of love for Christ.” Many educated people who were previously atheists, after communicating with this unique woman, converted to faith and accepted Catholicism. Presidents and monarchs, the most influential people, sought to communicate with her. And she accepted donations from everyone - even from bloody dictators and dishonest financial tycoons, without fear of causing condemnation in society. She said: “This is from the bottom of my heart - for the work that I am doing, and not for me.”

In 1995, Mother Teresa was no longer able to serve as head of the order due to health reasons. She resigned from her post and died 2 years later of a heart attack in Calcutta at the age of eighty-seven. She always said: “Christ commanded to love your neighbor, and not the whole world.” And she bequeathed this to all people.

Name: Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu

Years of life: 26.08.1910 - 5.09.1997

State: Macedonia ( Ottoman Empire), India

Field of activity: Monasticism

Greatest Achievement: Nobel Peace Prize laureate, beatified (2003) and sainted (2016)

There is probably no person who has not heard this name. Mother Teresa is one of the most famous women of the 20th century, along with Princess Diana. Her service to God and showing mercy to all those who suffer are still a shining example of a true nun and a person with a big and kind heart. Even more than 20 years after her death, Mother Teresa's name is on everyone's lips - and always in a positive way. Despite her difficult life, the nun retained her faith in the Lord, her strength and love for her neighbor. For which she was awarded one of the highest awards - and we’re not just talking about the Nobel Prize. The Catholic Church canonized her as a saint. Isn't this the highest achievement for a Catholic woman?

early years

The future nun and legend of the 20th century was born into an ordinary Albanian family on August 26, 1910 in the city of Skopje in Macedonia. Besides her, her parents also had a son and a daughter. From the day of her first Holy Communion she had a love for people. The family was not in poverty. The mother was a very religious woman and raised her three children - 2 daughters and a son - in the same spirit, teaching them mercy and kindness towards those who have nothing in their souls. A good life ended for Agnes in 1919 when her father died. The mother took on several jobs at once, sewing, but did not lose faith in her strength and the help of God. After some time, she took in several orphans to raise.

At the age of eighteen, in 1928, Agnes left her home to become a nun. Her path lay to Ireland, to the monastery Holy Virgin Maria. It is there that she changes her family name to another, which made her the most famous nun in the world. Having received the necessary knowledge, in 1929 the future nun went to India.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

In Calcutta, she began teaching at St. Mary's School for Girls. On May 24, 1937, Sister Teresa accepted her final vow, becoming, as she said, “the wife of Jesus” for “all eternity.” From that time on, she was called Mother Teresa. She continued to teach at school, delved into all the intricacies of teaching, provided all kinds of support to people who needed it, and gathered like-minded people around her.

In 1944 she became the school's director. And in 1948, her most famous creation was born - the community of sisters-missionaries of love. The path to creation was long and thorny. On September 10, 1946, while traveling by train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, Teresa suddenly felt an extraordinary surge of strength and a huge, all-consuming love for the Lord. That day (how and why it suddenly happened - she could not explain) the thirst for the love and soul of Jesus took possession of her heart, and the desire to satisfy this thirst became the driving force of her life. For several months, Jesus appeared to her and told her what he wanted from her, to help people, to destroy the neglect of the poor and disadvantaged.

Almost two years of trials passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin creating a community. On August 17, 1948, she wore a white sari with blue borders for the first time to become a symbol of comfort and help to the poorest. On December 21, she went to the slums for the first time. She visited families, washed the wounds of some children, cared for old people lying sick on the roads, and fed women dying of hunger and disease. She began each day in Communion with the Eucharist, and then went out with a rosary in her hand to find and serve him in the unwanted, unloved, forgotten.

Gradually, the number of missionary houses under her leadership grew - branches were opened in various parts of the world - from Asia to Latin America.

Mother Teresa and the Nobel Prize

Gradually, her work did not go unnoticed - charity and serving God in pleasing deeds made Mother Teresa a contender for all kinds of awards for her work. In 1962, she was awarded the Padmashri Award. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her enormous contribution to missionary work. Facilities mass media began to monitor her activities. She received both prizes and attention for the glory of God and for the sake of the poor.

IN last years throughout her life, despite increasingly serious health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her community and meet the needs of the poor and the church. By 1997, the sisters in the community numbered almost 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries.

In March 1997, she blessed her newly elected successor as head of the Missionaries of Charity and then made another trip abroad. After her last meeting with Pope John Paul II, she returned to Calcutta and held last weeks, receiving guests and teaching newcomers. On September 5, Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end. She was given the honor of a state funeral by the Government of India. Her grave quickly became a place of pilgrimage for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a legacy of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity.

She called people to great love for God and to show mercy. She called people to great love for God and to show mercy. You can often find her quotes about life, that you can only do one thing, but it’s good, feed even one hungry person, but do it. Under no circumstances, she taught, should one be disappointed in people if one turned out to be unworthy. All people are completely different, and you should always give them a chance. And all things must be done with love in the heart and not under duress.

The entire life and work of Mother Teresa testified to the joy of love, to the greatness and dignity of every person, to the value of little things done correctly and with love, to the enduring value of friendship with God. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 2003. The decree of a miracle required for her canonization was approved on December 17, 2015, and she was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.

“The greatest poverty is poverty of the heart.” - Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa of Calcutta(real name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu; alb. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu; August 26, 1910 - September 5, 1997) - Catholic nun, founder of the women's monastic congregation "Sisters of the Missionaries of Love", engaged in serving the poor and sick. Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1979). Canonized by the Catholic Church.

In 1997 she was awarded the highest US award - the Congressional Gold Medal.

Biography

God's Power in Action

“Lord, allow me to preach You without preaching - not with words, but with example, with attractive power, with the beneficial effect of what I do, with the fullness of Your presence in my heart...” These words belong to a woman who had the difficult and joyful fate of bringing people the Good News that God is love and the meaning of every mortal’s life is only to love and be loved. In the twentieth century, she became not just a symbol of mercy, but, together with her sisters in faith, represented a real force that could not be ignored.

They called her Mother Teresa. She really became a mother for many unwanted children - babies from garbage bins, little disabled people and orphans... A small, thin, smiling old lady. A penetrating gaze, a mobile face, rough, disproportionately large, worn-out peasant hands. In her presence, the interlocutors felt like a meaningful part of creation - she radiantly and intelligently looked into the face of the world, looked people in the eyes, apologizing for having to rush. She did not speak words about God every second, but she testified about Him with her life. She joyfully did what turned out to be beyond human interests: she said to a useless, unremarkable beggar, crippled, helpless: “You are not alone!”

Mother Teresa stated: “There are so many religions and each has its own way of following God. I follow Christ: Jesus is my God, Jesus is my Life, Jesus is my only Love, Jesus is my All in all...”

The childhood and youth of Agnes Gonxhi Bojaxhiu

Mother Teresa (Agnesa Gonxha Bojaxhiu) was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia. She was the youngest of three children of Nicola Bojaxhiu, a wealthy building contractor and merchant. Agnes was pretty, obedient, attentive. She sang beautifully in the church choir, played the guitar, and helped her mother. She either wanted to be a writer, or a music teacher, or a missionary in Africa... The girl was talented, her poems were published in the local newspaper.

Once a week, their mother and her children visited the sick in the city, taking food and clothing to the poor. Mom wanted her children to be sensitive to human need and learn to love their neighbors. She often reminded them: “You are lucky, you live in a beautiful house, you have food, clothes, you do not need anything. But you must not forget that many people are hungry; there are children who have nothing to eat, nothing to wear, and when they are sick, they have no money for treatment.”

The sudden death of his father was a tragic experience for the family. The first years after his death were very difficult for the family, but his mother, a woman with strong faith, knew how to overcome difficulties. “Mom taught us to pray and help people who are having a difficult time. Even after my father's death, we tried to be a happy family. We learned to value prayer and work,” recalled Mother Teresa. - Many poor people in Skopje and its surroundings knew our house. No one ever left us empty-handed. Every day someone had lunch with us, they were poor people, people who had nothing.”

By the age of twelve, Agnes knew that somehow she had to dedicate her life to God. She hated the seclusion behind the high walls of the monastery, and the concern for salvation own soul in the quiet monastery cells seemed as selfish as vigilant vigilance to protect one’s own wealth.

At eighteen, she left the warm, cozy home of her parents and joined the Irish missionary order of the Sisters of Loret. Teresa spent a year in Dublin Abbey studying English language. She also studied the basics of medicine at the Sorbonne, and on January 6, 1929, she sailed for Calcutta. Since then, her abode has become corners where the pain and suffering of people exceeded the usual earthly degree.

Her older brother Lazar, a student at the military academy, considered his sister’s act a girlish whim, which he wrote about in a letter. Her answer is endlessly quoted by biographers: “Do you consider yourself significant because you will become an officer and serve a king with two million subjects? I will serve the King of the whole world.”

Beginning of ministry in India

She began her ministry in India, a country known for its incredible poverty and poverty. In the 30s of the last century, Calcutta could plunge any European into horror. There were poisonous snakes in the thickets of bushes on the city streets, miserable shacks huddled against the walls of palaces, people (millions!) were born, lived and died on heaps of garbage. Amid such landscapes, Sister Teresa spent 16 years teaching Bengali girls history and geography in their native language. However, her asceticism was not limited only to street children and the organization of schools.

On August 16, 1948, Mother Teresa, who had obtained permission from Rome to become a free missionary nun, changed into a cheap white sari with a blue border bought on the market and left her sister’s monastery. With five rupees in her pocket, she disappeared into the slums of Calcutta. As historians note, she did this at the call of Christ - to follow Him into the slums to serve Him through the poorest. And Sister Teresa followed this call without hesitation. According to her, greatest sin man is not hatred, but indifference to his helpless brothers.

She later recalled: “I lived in the monastery without knowing any difficulties. I have never felt the need for anything. And now everything has changed. I slept wherever I had to, on the floor, in the slums, where mice scratched in the corners; I ate what my charges ate, and only when there was something to eat. But I chose this life to literally put the Gospel into practice, especially these words of Jesus: “I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you accepted Me; I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” In the poorest people of Calcutta, I loved Jesus, and when you love, you do not experience suffering or difficulty. Moreover, from the very beginning I had no time to be bored. My calling was to serve the poorest. I lived completely relying on the will of God, and the Lord led me. I felt His presence every minute, saw His direct intervention in my life.” She took on perhaps the most terrible mission - to help the dying pass into another world.

Founding of the Home for the Dying Poor

And so, on one September day in 1946, Sister Teresa witnessed a terrible, but quite common story for Calcutta. My son brought it to the gates of the city hospital in a wheelbarrow dying mother. The unfortunate woman's body was covered with terrible scabs, she could not move. Leprosy is a terrible disease, its victims are doomed to die completely alone, as relatives are trying to get rid of the leper... The woman was not taken to the hospital, her son left her to die on the street, right on the pavement filled with slop. The dying woman was eaten by rats and ants, but was still alive. Nobody wanted to admit this half-corpse even to the most modest hospital. For what? You can’t help the unfortunate woman, but waiting until she dies is too expensive, and it’s better to treat others who are not in such a deplorable state... Sister Teresa tried to help her. But not everything is humanly possible: “I couldn’t be near her, I couldn’t stand that smell. She ran away and began to pray: “...Give me a heart full of purity, love and humility, so that I can accept Christ, touch Christ, love Christ in this destroyed body...” She returned, washed the beggar woman, and spoke kindly to her. “She died with a smile,” said Mother Teresa. “It was a sign to me that the love of Christ and the love for Christ is stronger than my weakness.” This was the beginning of the “House for the Dying Poor.” She asked the municipality to give her a place where she could take the dying. Every poor fellow, even the last one, ugly and little like a rational being, was accepted in this house.

Sister Teresa recalled: “One day they brought a man to us. He screamed and moaned; he didn't want to die. His spine was broken in three places, and his entire body was covered with terrible wounds. His torment was terrible. But he didn’t want to see anyone... He was given huge doses of morphine and love; he was told about the suffering of the One who loved him more than anyone in the world. Gradually he began to listen and accept love. He gave up morphine for the last time because he wanted to unite with the One who saved him.”

"Beautiful death"

Mother Teresa cared for people in the last hours of their lives so that they would “die gracefully.” “A beautiful death,” she said, “is when people who lived like animals can die like angels... Conversion is a change of heart through love...”

At first, the people of Calcutta saw this Christian woman’s ministry as a challenge to their faith. However, after she picked up a priest of a pagan temple dying of cholera on the street and carried him into her shelter in her arms, the attitude towards her changed.

The Fruits of Prayer and Charity

Mother Teresa began each morning with several hours of prayer. She could not go out to people without first cleansing her soul of personal ambitions and human malice that was layered in the atmosphere. But when she and her faithful sisters appeared on the street, joy oozed from their eyes and poured out onto their hostile faces.

"Profitable" Nobel Prize

What began with twelve sisters of mercy now has three hundred thousand employees who work in eighty countries around the world, managing orphanages, AIDS clinics, leper colonies... In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “For her work in help to a suffering person" She asked to transfer the funds that were to be spent on the banquet to “my people.” That's what she called those who were suffering.

At the award ceremony she said: “I chose the poverty of the poor. But I am grateful for the opportunity to receive the Nobel Prize in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, forgotten. People who have become a burden in society and rejected by everyone.” She also stated her views on abortion in her Nobel lecture: “I see the greatest threat to the world in abortion, since it represents a real war, a murder carried out by the mother.” Teresa denounces feminism, especially in India, urging women to build strong families by leaving “men to do what they are best suited to do.”

She “benefited” from the Nobel laureate. The field of her activity was the hot spots of the planet: Northern Ireland, South Africa, Lebanon. She could quietly but powerfully stop the war - albeit briefly, as in Beirut in 1982 - only for the time necessary to evacuate 37 children from the fire zone, who were locked in a front-line hospital. During the siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa convinced the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas to stop fighting. This is very small, insignificant compared to the global projects of the century. But where the value of the soul is measured, completely different criteria are used.

Speech at the UN

In 1985, Mother Teresa was invited to the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the organization's 40th anniversary. There was one problem - according to UN rules, prayer is not allowed at Assembly meetings. However, this rule was unable to stop her. She climbed to the podium, prayed, and read the following message to the assembled world leaders: “You and I must take a step towards each other and share the joy of love. But we cannot give what we do not have ourselves. This is why we need to pray. And prayer will give us a pure heart...” Yes, wherever this woman was, she left behind her the fragrance of God, His traces!

Mother Teresa did not like giving interviews. She knew: there was no time, they were waiting for her. They gave her incredible cars - she sold them and built a hospital with the proceeds. One reporter, who specially came to Calcutta to interview Mother Teresa, heard in response: “An interview with me? Talk better with God...” The next day he was already helping the sisters wash the dying and during his stay in the shelter he never mentioned the interview again.

Understanding the love of Christ

They often told her: “You are not treating the cause, but the effect. You are patching holes. Your work is drowning in an ocean of problems that can only be solved through joint efforts at the state level.” She did not accept such criticism and believed that she acted in full accordance with the letter and spirit of Scripture. She did this for “these little ones,” and therefore for Christ.

“Because we do not see Christ, we cannot express our love to Him, but we can always see our neighbors and act towards them as we would act towards Christ if we saw Him.” When they told her that her work was not bringing significant fruit and there were more and more poor people in the world, she answered: “God did not call me to be successful - He called me to be faithful.”

One journalist, observing the daily assistance of Mother Teresa and the sisters of her Order of Charity to lepers, the sick and the dying, burst out: “I would not do this for a million dollars.” “I wouldn’t do it for a million,” answered Mother Teresa, “only for free!” Out of love for Christ!”

"Pencil" in God's hands

She called herself a pencil in the hands of God, writing a letter of love to the world, and her thoughts and sayings can be found not only in numerous publications, but also in the menu folder of an Indian restaurant, as well as on the wall of the shelter she founded for those dying from AIDS: “Life is This is a chance, don't miss it. Life is beauty, marvel at it... Life is a duty, fulfill it... Life is love, so love... Life is a tragedy, endure it... Life is life, save it!.. Life is worth living. Don’t destroy your Life!”

In the former Soviet Union, Mother Teresa is known for helping victims of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident and those injured in the earthquake in the Armenian city of Spitak. Then hundreds of doctors, rescuers and volunteers gathered there, among whom was Mother Teresa. Even at such an old age, she continued to help people herself.

The Diaries of Mother Teresa

From personal diaries Mother Teresa we learn that she often struggled with contradictions, inner emptiness, loneliness, she was haunted by doubts whether she was really worthy and capable of serving the Lord... However, recovering in the hospital after another heart attack, in her diary, in her right mind and strong memory, she wrote with confidence: “Who is Jesus to me?..” And then follows a stunning list: “Jesus is the Word that must be spoken. Light, love, peace... Jesus - hungry, needing to be fed, thirsty... Homeless. Sick. Lonely! Unwanted!.. Blind! Cripple! Prisoner!.. I love Jesus with all my heart, with all my being. I gave everything to Him, even my sins...”

Shortly before Mother Teresa passed into eternity, a journalist asked her if she was afraid of death. She replied: “No, I’m not afraid at all. To die means to return home. Are you afraid to return home to your loved ones? I look forward to death, because then I will meet Jesus and all the people whom I tried to give love during my earthly life. It will be a wonderful meeting, won’t it?” When she said this, her face shone with joy and peace. When asked if she had weekends or holidays, she replied: “Yes! Every day is a holiday for me!”

The doors of both huts and palaces opened to her. The name index in any biography of Mother Teresa will puzzle you with the most impossible combinations. She could stay awake for many days in a row, always smile, go to the Iranian embassy and leave a note to the Ayatollah - the spiritual leader of Muslims - asking him to urgently call her to discuss the hostage problem, forget the Nobel Peace Prize laureate medal somewhere in the wardrobe of the royal palace. This modest, inconspicuous woman spoke to kings and beggars, and addressed numerous audiences. In 1997, she was awarded the United States' highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. Mother Teresa did not seek fame, but fulfilled her duty. And everything else - awards, orders, speeches, recognition - was just an ornament, an outer shell, behind which the tireless and invisible work of the soul was hidden.

Live and Die for God's Glory

Mother Teresa, who always worked a lot and hard, wandering around the world, one day was nevertheless overtaken by a fatal illness. The heart stopped keeping up with its owner. She passed away on September 5, 1997, at the age of 87. One and a half million people came out to see her off on her last journey, among whom were prominent political and religious figures, as well as those to whom Mother Teresa dedicated her entire life - orphans, lepers and the homeless. This little, wrinkled sister from Calcutta, thanks to her complete devotion to Christ, became a treasure for people, because she radiated God's Love - the only salvation for the world. She brought back to life a truly Christian understanding of charity - creating good not with money, not with surpluses from wealth, but with the expenditure of one’s own soul... Sister Teresa stated: “You see, I never imagined that I could change the world! I just tried to be a drop clean water, in which the love of God could be reflected. Isn't this enough?! " She made it clear to everyone that each of us, followers of Christ, has that small but necessary capital of love, which we must skillfully invest in a good cause - for the glory of our Lord. Her words ring true for us: “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow hasn't come yet. We only have today. So let's get started!”

Quotes

Mother Teresa once said of her ministry that it was based on her faith in Christ.

Due to the fact that we do not see Christ, we cannot express our love to Him, but we can always see our neighbors and act towards them as we would act towards Christ if we saw Him.

According to some sources, in private, Mother Teresa experienced doubts and struggles about her religious beliefs that lasted for almost fifty years, until her death, during which time “she did not feel the presence of God at all,” “not in her heart, not in the sacrament” as stated by its postulator, Canadian priest Brian Kolodiejchuk. Mother Teresa experienced deep doubts about the existence of God and pain due to her lack of faith:

Where is my faith? Even deep inside... there is nothing but emptiness and darkness... If God exists, please forgive me. When I try to turn my thoughts to heaven, there is such an awareness of the emptiness there that these same thoughts return like sharp knives and wound my very soul... How painful this unknown pain is - I have no faith. Rejected, empty, without faith, without love, without zeal,... Why am I fighting? If there is no God, there can be no soul. If there is no soul, then, Jesus, you are not true either.

Other

I know only one thing for sure: if people loved each other more, our
life would be much better.

Active prayer is love. Active love is service.

The most important medicine is tender love and care.

Love is a fruit that ripens at any time and can reach
any hand can reach.

The greatest poverty is poverty of the heart.

Every work done with love and with with an open heart, Always
brings a person closer to God.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and selfish. Despite this - forgive them!

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish intentions. Despite
to this - please!

If you succeed, you will have not only true friends, but also false ones.
Regardless, do well!

If you are honest and open, people can deceive you. Despite this - be
honest and open!

What you have been building for many years, someone can destroy overnight. Despite
build it!

If you achieve peace and happiness, people may become envious.
Despite this - be happy!

The good things you do today are often forgotten tomorrow. Despite
this is do good!

Give the world the best you have, even though it may often not be enough.
not enough. Regardless, give it away!

If you judge someone, you don't have time to love them! Love it!
Despite everything!

Share the best you have with people and it will never be enough.
Share the best you have anyway.

In the end, everything you do is not for people; Only you and God need this

In the end, you will see for yourself that all this is between you and God;
It was never between them and you anyway.

LIFE is an opportunity - seize it

LIFE is beauty - admire it

LIFE is bliss - taste it

LIFE is a dream - make it come true

LIFE is a challenge - accept it

LIFE is a duty - fulfill it

LIFE is a game - play it

LIFE is wealth - cherish it

LIFE is love - enjoy it

LIFE is a mystery - know it

LIFE, this is a chance - take advantage of it

LIFE, this is grief - overcome it

LIFE is a struggle - endure it

LIFE is an adventure - take it on

LIFE is a tragedy - overcome it

LIFE is happiness - create it

LIFE is too beautiful - don't ruin it

LIFE is life - fight for it

There is great joy in dedicating yourself to serving others (JOY)

There is a lot of evil in life, in life there are homeless and sick people, but the worst thing is for those who are deprived of the joys of love (EVIL)

Love: the more you share with others, the more you will have (LOVE)

We don't need guns and bombs to defeat evil, we need love and compassion. All labors of love are labors for the good of the world (GOOD AND EVIL)

I know only one thing for sure: if people loved each other more, our lives would become much better (LOVE FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR)

Love as long as it does no harm (LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR)

The most important medicine is tender love and care (LOVE FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR)

Suffering can be the path to great love and great mercy (SUFFERING)

Small good deeds done out of great love bring joy and peace (GOOD DEEDS)

Love is a fruit that ripens at any time and that any hand can reach (LOVE)

Debt is a very personal thing. It stems from a feeling of need to do something, and not just from the need to induce other people to do something (SENSE OF DUTY)

The greatest sin of man is not hatred, but indifference to his brothers (INDIFFERENCE)

Loneliness and the feeling that no one needs you is the most... terrible view poverty

Love must be shown in action, and this action is service (LOVE)

Every work done with love and with an open heart always brings a person closer to God (WORK)

Let people see the kindness shining in your face, in your eyes and in your friendly greeting (KINDNESS)

Joy is a net of love for catching souls (JOY)

If you start judging people, you won't have enough time to love them (VISES)

It is easy to love those who are far away, but it is not so easy to love those close to you (LOVE FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR)

Hell is a place where it smells bad and no one loves anyone (HELL AND HEAVEN)

The greatest destroyer of the world is abortion, because if a mother herself can kill her own child, then why should I kill you, and you kill me? It is the same!

Poverty of soul is deciding that a child must die so that you can live for your own pleasure.

The biggest misfortune today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but the feeling of being useless.

The greatest hunger in the world is for love and gratitude, not for bread.

Words that do not bring the light of Christ only increase the darkness.

“At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by the number of degrees we have earned, the amount of money we have earned or accumulated, or the amount of wealth we have. We will be judged like this: “I was hungry and you gave me food? I was naked and you gave me clothes? I was homeless and you let me into your house?”

“I don’t know exactly what heaven is like, but I know when we die and God’s judgment comes upon us, the Lord will not ask how many good deeds you have done in life, He will ask how much LOVE you put into what you did?”

Video

Mother Teresa - Madre Teresa (2003)

Mother Teresa. Saint in the Dark

Documentary - Mother Teresa

However, the Russian Federal News Agency questioned the sanctity of Mother Teresa and cited in this regard the most scandalous facts from the biography of Agnes Godje Bojaxhiu.

At her birth on August 26, 1910, Mother Teresa received the name Agnes Godje Bojaxhiu. This happened in Skopje, in a wealthy Catholic Albanian family. Her father, Nikola Bojaxhiu, originally from Prizren, was an ardent Albanian nationalist, a member of an underground organization whose goal was “to cleanse Skopje from the Slavic occupiers (meaning Macedonians, Serbs and Bulgarians) and annex it to Albania.”

Hatred of the Slavs became the reason for Nikola's violent death in 1919 - he was killed during an attack on a Serbian village. His daughter inherited a dislike for the Slavs. Although she was fluent in the Serbian language and even graduated from a Serbian gymnasium, during her future official visits to Yugoslavia she always communicated only through an interpreter.

Her attitude towards her hometown, now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia, is also very peculiar. When the July 26, 1963 earthquake there killed 1,070 people and destroyed 75% of its buildings, Agnes Bojaxhiu refused to give Skopje financial aid from her monastic order, but publicly blessed the staff of the American military hospital.

The hospital stayed in Skopje for 15 days. As the Macedonians say, the Americans spent 5 days setting up a hospital, 5 days doing a photo shoot against the backdrop of ruins, and 5 days dismantling their camp. And now in the Skopje earthquake museum there are dozens of photographs showing Americans selflessly helping the Macedonians.

Wherein Soviet Union sent 500 engineering troops to Skopje, who worked there for six months. But only one photo survived - the Soviet soldiers had no time to take pictures, they were saving the lives of Macedonians who found themselves under the rubble.

Later, Agnes Bojaxhiu's mother visited Skopje four times and even became an honorary resident. She ceased to be an ordinary resident of it in 1928, when, after graduating from high school, she went to Ireland to join the monastic order “Sisters of Loreto”. There she learned English, became a nun under the name Teresa, and was sent to the Indian city of Calcutta to teach at St. Mary's Catholic School.

Further, according to her recollections, in 1946 she had a vision of Jesus Christ, who ordered her to quit school, take off her monastic clothes, put on the local national dress of a sari and go help the poorest and most unfortunate. However, in her other memoirs, she claimed that God came to her regularly, starting from the age of five.

Oddly enough, she managed to enlist the support of the authorities and her immediate Catholic superiors. For the institution, which Mother Teresa herself called the Home for the Dying, the mayor's office allocated to her in 1948 the former temple of the Indian goddess Kali. The staff included 12 nuns of the order “Missionary Sisters of Love” founded by Mother Teresa. In 1950, he was supported by the Bishop of Calcutta, Ferdinand Perier, and later he began to operate throughout the globe with the blessing of Pope Paul VI.

Her organization gained worldwide fame in 1969, when, on assignment from the BBC, journalist Malcolm Muggeridge filmed a documentary praising it, “Something Beautiful for God.” But this was not just laudatory material - the ecstatic journalist claimed that a miracle happened during the filming: there was no lighting in the House for the Dying, but the filming was a success, because “divine light appeared.”

And although cameraman Ken McMillan later stated that it was simply the first time he had used the new Kodak film for night filming, in those days there was no Internet and the operator could not outshout the powerful Air Force corporation. However, people are always more interested in reading about miracles than about new properties of film.

As a result of powerful PR, the number of nuns of the order approached 5,000, and more than 500 churches appeared in 121 countries of the world. Hospices and care centers for the seriously ill began to open everywhere, social houses. Although Mother Teresa still called them Homes for the Dying.

What they really are told in documentary film“Angel from Hell” Mary Loudon, who worked in one of them: “The first impression was as if I was seeing footage from a Nazi concentration camp, since all the patients also had their heads shaved. The only furniture is folding beds and primitive wooden beds. Two halls. In one, men slowly die, in the other, women. There is practically no treatment, only aspirin and other cheap drugs.

There were not enough IVs, needles were used repeatedly. The nuns washed them in cold water. When I asked why they were not disinfected in boiling water, I was told that this was not necessary and there was no time for it. I remember a 15-year-old boy who initially had the usual pain in his kidneys, but he got worse and worse because he did not receive antibiotics, and later he needed surgery. I said that in order to cure him, you just need to call a taxi, take him to the hospital and pay for an inexpensive operation. But they refused me this, explaining: “If we do this for him, then we will have to do this for everyone.”

Mary Loudon's words are confirmed by the results of numerous inspections of Homes for the Dying. It has been repeatedly noted that there are practically no conclusions there employment contracts with doctors, and all the main work is done by working unpaid volunteers who believed in the myth of Mother Teresa’s institutions. Doctors noted poor hygiene, the transfer of diseases from one patient to another, food unfit for consumption, and a lack of basic painkillers.

The new saint actually banned painkillers, saying: “There is something beautiful in the way the poor accept their lot, the way they suffer, like Jesus on the cross. The world gains a lot from suffering. Torment means Jesus kisses you.” The resulting painful shock became the cause of death for many.

All of the above fit perfectly into her concept of saving the sick. If for normal people saving a patient means his recovery, for Mother Teresa this meant his conversion to Catholicism and thus salvation from the torments of hell in afterlife. Therefore, the more the patient suffered, the easier it was to convince him that to get rid of suffering you need to become a Catholic and Jesus Christ will help you. The rite of baptism in Homes for the Dying is as simple as everything else: the patient’s head is covered with a wet rag and the appropriate prayer is read. And then, if the patient survives after this, he will tell everyone that this happened thanks to the transition to Catholicism, and if he does not survive, he will not tell anything.

When Mother Teresa herself needed medical help, she did not use the services of her medical institutions, but went for treatment to one of the most expensive clinics in the world in the American state of California. She didn’t want to kiss Jesus either—she had used all the painkillers.

She just as easily changed her position on other issues if it was beneficial for her. So she was categorically against abortion. In her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she stated: “The greatest threat to peace today is abortion, because it is direct war, murder, the direct killing of a man by his own mother.” However, when her friend Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi began forcibly sterilizing the poor, Agnes Bojaxhiu fully supported the campaign. True, in 1993 she again changed her position and condemned a 14-year-old Irish girl who had an abortion after being raped.

Traveling around the world, Agnes Bojaxhiu demanded bans and divorces everywhere, since every marriage is sanctified by God. However, when her other friend Princess Diana divorced Prince Charles, she announced that “this correct solution, because love left the family.”

The documentary “Something Beautiful for God” was not the only successful campaign to create the image of Agnes Bojaxhiu as a selfless savior of the downtrodden.

When an earthquake struck the Indian province of Latur in 1993, killing 8,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless, Mother Teresa took the time to go there and pose for photographs in front of the new houses built by other charities. Her monastic order did not allocate any money to the victims and even refused to send its nuns there.

When epidemics broke out in India, Mother Teresa did not help fight them, but she actively took pictures with the sick. And when she later arrived in Rome, the media reported to the whole world that she was placed under quarantine. It was another reminder of her supposed battle against illness.

Can be found detailed descriptions her visit to the Armenian SSR after the earthquake in Spitak, but it is impossible to find information about how much money the fund allocated and to whom.

Despite the fact that Agnes Bojaxhiu everywhere called for a modest Christian lifestyle, she herself, during her numerous travels around the world, preferred to travel in personal planes and helicopters, and stay in the most fashionable residences.

Thanks to massive propaganda, millions of people believed in the universal benefactor of the unfortunate and sent their donations to her order. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Mother Teresa and her order received dozens of awards from various organizations for huge sums. However, the Nobel laureate did not like to talk about how they were spent. When asked by journalists for an interview, she usually answered: “Better talk to God.”

Thanks to her friendship with Indira Gandhi, her monastic order, registered in India, was freed from any financial control for many years under the pretext of being a large charitable organization. Moreover, when a ranking of financial assistance from organizations in Calcutta was compiled in 1998, the order “Sisters of the Missionaries of Love” was not even among the top 200. Mother Teresa herself, when presenting her with the Nobel Prize, lied that assistance was provided to 36,000 residents of Calcutta. A check carried out by Indian journalists found that there were no more than 700 of them.

The most powerful scandal related to the spending of donations received by Agnes Bojaxhiu occurred in 1991, when the German magazine Stern, based on documents, published information that only 7% of donations went to the treatment of patients. Huge sums ended up in the accounts of the Vatican Bank in Rome. Despite the huge sums, no one carried out modernization medical centers, no equipment was purchased. Instead, funds were spent on opening new centers around the world, where, under the guise of saving the body, they save the soul by converting it into Catholic faith. Officially, the entire Nobel Prize for the new saint went to the new centers.

The origin of the donations did not bother Mother Teresa. She calmly accepted money stolen by dictators from her people. Moreover, both from pro-American anti-communist dictators, and from communist ones.

In 1981, she visited Haiti, where Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled, having gained power 10 years earlier at the age of 19 after the death of his dictator father. It seemed that there was nothing good to be said about the situation in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world, where corruption and disease are rampant, and where the Duvalier family has committed 60 thousand overt and covert political murders. However, Mother Teresa said that nowhere in the world had she seen such closeness between the poor and the leader of the state.

As a result, she received $1.5 million from the Haitian dictator. She clearly liked the Republic of Haiti and its leader and visited them again in 1983. This time, after saying that she was “conquered by Duvalier’s love for his people” and that “the people pay him in full in return,” she was awarded the country’s highest award, the Order of the Legion of Glory, and received another $1 million. Mutual love in Haiti ended after 3 years, when the people overthrew their beloved dictator, and he repaid his beloved people by stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from them, fleeing with them to his residence on the French Riviera.

In 1989, she visited the homeland of her ancestors - Albania. She was there at the invitation of the new communist leader Ramiz Alia, who, following the example of Mikhail Gorbachev, decided to introduce democratic reforms in his socialist country. He took power four years earlier, after the death of Enver Hoxha, who had ruled Albania for 40 years.

Among government leaders it is difficult to find a person who has great merit to the Catholic Church, as well as to all other churches. The first thing he did when he came to power after World War II was to shoot two Catholic bishops and 40 priests. In 1967, the leader of the Albanian communists announced that his country had become the world's first atheist state. In connection with this, all churches were closed, including 157 Catholic churches. The clergy are thrown into prison. For performing religious rituals the death penalty was imposed, and for individual practice of religion - sending to camps. Executions of clergy of all faiths continued throughout the entire period of his reign. So, in 1971, when released from prison catholic priest Steffen Kurti baptized the baby, he was shot, the parents were sent to camps, and the baby was sent to an orphanage.

But all this did not stop Nun Teresa from laying a wreath on the grave of Enver Hoxha and saying a lot about him words of praise. Later, Agnes Bojaxhiu visited Enver's widow, Nedjmie. About the new leader of Albania, she said that she was “happy for my people, who have such a leader.”

The Albanian people did not appreciate their happiness and in 1992 removed Ramiz Alia from power, and a year later sent him to prison.

In addition to Ramiz, Mother Teresa had mutually beneficial meetings with the communist leaders of Cuba and the GDR - Fidel Castro and Eric Honecker. She also received money from Yasser Arafat, whom she met in Lebanon.

The English Lord was also a major sponsor of the Order of the Sisters of the Missionaries of Love Jewish origin and media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who stole from pension fund his own workers 600 million dollars and escaped prison punishment due to death on a yacht. Another famous donor who benefited Mother Teresa with $1.25 million was the American Charles Keating. Later, when he was put on trial for defrauding 23,000 investors of his foundation out of $252 million, Mother Teresa sent a letter asking for clemency for her faithful and generous son. catholic church.

IN reply letter Prosecutor Paul Turley wrote that "the church should not allow itself to be used as a conscience-soothe for a criminal" and suggested that Agnes Bojaxhiu return the money received from Keating to those from whom it was stolen. The answer is silence.

Interestingly, another recipient of assistance from Charles Keating was the American senator and great friend of the current Ukrainian government, John McCain. Perhaps all this helped the generous Catholic get off with only 4.5 years in prison for such a huge theft, and now he is back in big American business.

The refusal to return the money stolen from the Americans did not spoil Mother Teresa’s relationship with the US authorities. Quite the opposite: along with the Vatican, which honored her with its highest award - the declaration of a saint, the United States became the second state to do this. In 1996, she became an honorary US citizen, a title only three foreigners had received before her, and in 1997 she was awarded the highest American award, the Congressional Gold Medal. Officially, such high awards are explained by her charitable activities, but her other services to the United States are certainly not forgotten.

December 3, 1984 at Indian city Bhopal was the site of the largest man-made disaster in human history. As a result of the explosion of a 60 thousand liter tank at a chemical plant owned by the American company Union Carbide, 42 tons of toxic fumes were released into the air. 4,000 people died immediately, another 21 thousand later. The total number of victims is up to 600 thousand people. The cause of the disaster was savings on safety measures on the part of the chemical company, although Union Carbide stubbornly insisted that this was sabotage. In addition, the company refused to disclose the name of the toxic substance for reasons of trade secrets, which made it difficult for Indian civilian and military doctors to work. The neglect of American business for the safety of the local population, which led to such horrific consequences, could jeopardize not only the chemical company, but also the reputation of the United States in all third world countries.

Measures have been taken. This time Mother Teresa did not remain indifferent to the tragedy of the Indian people. She arrived in Bhopal accompanied by her many nuns and volunteers. Mother Teresa spoke in public places and in her speeches explained that this is a punishment from God, that we must pray and he will punish the guilty, but now we must forgive. The last word was the main thing in all her speeches. The nuns and volunteers individually instilled this in those to whom they provided their primitive medical care.

This helped prevent anti-American protests that would have attracted worldwide attention. American company Union Carbide, which was responsible for the tragedy, was able to negotiate in an out-of-court settlement in 1987 to pay $470 million to the victims of the accident in exchange for waiving further legal action. The investigation into the tragedy lasted 26 years and only on June 7, 2010, a court in Bhopal sentenced seven Indians who worked at a chemical plant to two years in prison and a fine of $2,100. The former director of the plant, American Warren Anderson, was acquitted.

The Union Carbide Company made a large donation to the Order of Mother Teresa. Of course, for medical assistance, and not for propaganda.

There is also information that secret financial assistance was provided to the Nicaraguan contras through Mother Teresa’s organization. This is indirectly confirmed by her being awarded the Medal of Freedom by US President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

From the moment of the death of the founder of the order “Missionary Sisters of Love” until the moment she became a saint, exactly 19 years passed and this process was not easy. According to the rules of the Catholic Church, in order for a person to be canonized as a saint, he must perform a miracle.

The search for miracles performed by Mother Teresa was entrusted to the Canadian priest Brian Kolodiychuk. First, he announced that Monica Besra, a resident of the Indian state of Bengal, had a 17-centimeter malignant tumor in her stomach. On the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death - September 5, 1998, her sister placed a medallion with the face of the Holy Mother of God on her stomach, which was used to touch Mother Teresa’s body on the day of her funeral, and turned to the universal righteous woman with a prayer for her recovery. After 8 hours the tumor disappeared.

Everything was wonderful, in the literal and figurative sense of the word, but then Monica Besra quarreled with her husband, and he told reporters that his wife did not have a tumor, but an ovarian cyst, which was cured with the help of medications, for which he paid a large sum from his own pocket, and then took the journalists to the doctors, who kept the relevant medical documents.

Of course, after this scandal, the Vatican’s faith in the holiness of the nun, who, according to the most conservative estimates, brought him 3 billion dollars and millions of new followers, did not disappear. But to maintain decency, a long-term pause was made in canonization for calm and oblivion.

In 2008, Rev. Kolodiychuk found a new miracle in Brazil, where Marcilio Haddat Andrino had a malignant brain tumor, but after his wife Fernanda began to pray to Mother Teresa, it disappeared. None medical documents V in this case there was no guarantee against a repeat of the case with Monica Besra.

But then a new scandal broke out. Her letters to her confessor, the Belgian Jesuit priest Henry, and her diaries became public. In them she writes: “I have no faith,” “Heaven is locked,” “They tell me that God loves me, but the dark, cold and empty reality is so strong that nothing touches my soul. Everything inside me is cold as ice.”

But the most unexpected was the following entry: “I feel lost. The Lord doesn't love me. God may not be God. Perhaps he is not,” which is not at all suitable for a nun who constantly claimed to regularly communicate with Jesus Christ. Of course, this scandal did not affect the decision of the Holy See on the sainthood of Agnes Bojaxhiu, but again they had to take a break.

The Vatican has finally managed to complete the process of canonization of Mother Teresa and many people are commenting on this.

Among them is the Italian Giorgio Brusco, who personally knew Agnes Bojaxhiu and is now serving a prison sentence for leading a criminal community, which in his country is called the mafia.

He spoke succinctly: “If she is a saint, then I am Jesus Christ.”