09/05/2026
Teresa was born in the Ottoman Empire to Albanian parents and after her father’s sudden death when she was only eight sent her family into financial difficulty. She joined the Irish Sisters or Loreto at 18 and then arrived in Calcutta, India and made her First Profession of Vows in 1931. In 1946 she took a nursing course and began her work with the destitute, sick and dying. In 1950 she founded the Missionaries of Charity dedicated to serving “the poorest of the poor” which is now operating in over 130 countries. She remains a symbol of selfless service and commitment to humanitarianism.