25 August: Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born on this date in 1910. Here are some things you might not know about her:

1. Her real name was Anjezë (Agnes) Gonxhe (Albanian for "rosebud") Bojaxhiu. Teresa was the name she adopted on taking her religious vows. She wanted to be named for Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries, but another nun in the same convent had already chosen that name, so Agnes opted for the Spanish spelling Teresa.
2. The young Agnes knew by the age of twelve that she wanted to be a nun. She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary, and never saw her mother or sister again.
3. Initially, her missionary work involved teaching in school in India, but later received what she referred to as "the call within the call", telling her to leave the convent and live among the poor. This she did, believing it to be a direct order from God. The first year was difficult - she experienced first hand what it was like to be poor and to have to beg for food. She was often sorely tempted to return to the relatively comfortable life at the convent, but resisted, writing in her diary that she believed she was being tempted by the devil, not unlike Jesus was during His forty days in the wilderness.
4. Her organisation, the Missionaries of Charity, began with permission from the Vatican in 1950. Mother Teresa herself stated that its mission was to care for, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."
5. Her first free hospice for the poor was a converted Hindu temple, and it opened in 1952.
6. In 1982, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children who were trapped in a hospital in Beirut. She brokered a temporary cease fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas, allowing her and Red Cross workers, to go into the war zone and get the children out.
7. You'd think someone like Mother Teresa would have an absolutely unshakeable faith - but her letters and diaries tell a different story. She often felt separated from God, and at times struggled to believe He even existed at all. This was a great source of pain for her, but a fairly common experience in the lives of saints, including Mother Teresa's namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux, who called it a "night of nothingness."
8. Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She gave the prize money to the poor of India. Earthly rewards were only important, she said, if they helped her help the world's needy.
9. In 2003, she was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta". The miracle required for this was recognised by the Vatican in 2002, when a woman was said to have been healed of cancer when a locket containing a picture of Mother Teresa was placed on her abdomen. Critics, including the woman's husband, claimed there was no miracle and that the woman had been cured by conventional medicine, and possibly never had cancer at all. A second miracle is needed before Mother Teresa can be made a saint.
10. On 28 August 2010, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth, the government of India issued a special 5 Rupee coin. This was the sum she first arrived in India with.