Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 led a life of prayer and service that was a power witness to all in the 20th century. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950.

Mother Teresa’s Life Work

For over 40 years, she provided aide and comfort to the starving, sick, dying and outcast in the streets of Calcutta. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death (1997) it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children’s and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.

Canonization and Controversy

Soon after her death in 1997, the Vatican opened Mother’s cause for canonization, and in 2003 was beatified and declared Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, when she was credited with the healing of a stomach tumor in an Indian woman. Mother Teresa’s life was like that of all the saints; a life spent trying to imitate the life of Christ. With such a radical lifestyle always come criticism and controversy, and even after death, Mother Teresa is not beyond the attacks of those who would try to discredit her and her life’s devotion to Christ.

In 2007, Double Day published Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, a compilation of letters that Mother Teresa wished to have destroyed after her death. Instead of destroying them, a book was published and soon the critics began to claim that Mother Teresa “did not believe”. Many missed the parallel of her spiritual path to many of the great mystics who have come before her.