Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu) was entrusted with the mission of bringing God’s tender love and care to the poorest of the poor. “God still loves the world, and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor,” she used to say, being a convincing witness of this truth before the entire world. This mission, or “a call within a call” as she termed it, found her within the confines of a Loreto convent in Calcutta, India, where she found joy and fulfilment in her role as teacher and educator of young girls. Yet, Jesus’ invitation “to give up all and follow Him into the slums—to serve Him in the poorest of the poor,” was stronger than all she loved and cherished up to that moment. She took the bold step into the unknown, and founded a religious community, the Missionaries of Charity, that would have as their aim to satiate the thirst of Jesus for love and souls by laboring at for the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the poor.

This luminous messenger of God’s love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history, to the parents of Albanian descent. The youngest of the five children born to Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu, she was baptized Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. Her father’s sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left the family in financial straits. Drana raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughter’s character and vocation. Gonxha’s religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved.