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MOTHER TERESA
Year: 1979 Nobel Peace Prize Cause: Leader of Missionaries of Charity, Kolkata Biography Mother Teresa, whose original name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born on August 27, 1910 in what is now Skopje, Macedonia. For her work with the poor around the world she received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. Her interest in India began when as a child she attended meetings of an organisation known as the Sodality of Our Lady where letters from Yugoslavian priests working in Bengal were read. On 29th November 1928 she joined a religious order and took the name Teresa. The order immediately sent her to India. A few years later, she began teaching in Calcutta, and in 1948 the Catholic Church granted her permission to leave her convent and work among the city's poor people. She became an Indian citizen that same year. In 1950, she founded a religious order in Calcutta called the Missionaries of Charity. The order provides food for the needy and operates hospitals, schools, orphanages, youth centers, and shelters for lepers and the dying poor. It now has branches in 50 Indian cities and 30 other countries. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997. Achievements 1962 Magsaysay Foundation Award. 1971 Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Kennedy International Humanitarian Award. 1973 The first Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. 1975 The first Albert Schweitzer International Peace Prize. 1977 Honorary Doctorate from Cambridge University. 1978 Honorary Order of the British Empire. 1979 The Nobel Peace Prize. 1983 Honorary Order of Merit. Mountbatten and World Humanities Award. 1996 Honorary US citizenship. Related Links |