Mother Teresa - Pope Francis has declared Mother Teresa a saint, honoring the tiny nun who cared for the world's most destitute as an icon for a Catholic Church that goes to the peripheries to find poor, wounded souls.
Published: Sun 4 Sep 2016, 1:19 PM
Last updated: Sun 4 Sep 2016, 3:46 PM
Landmark events in the life of Mother Teresa who was declared a saint by Pope Francis at the Vatican on Sunday:
- 1910: Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, present-day Macedonia, on August 26; Baptised on August 27
- 1922-1923: At age 12, feels first call to religious life
- 1928: Leaves home on Sep 25 to become a Roman Catholic Loreto nun and begins novitiate training in Dublin. Takes the name Sister Teresa
- 1929: Arrives in Kolkata, becomes a teacher at St Mary's School
- 1931: Takes her first vows as a nun
- 1937: Takes final vows as a nun, becomes known as Mother Teresa
- 1946: On a train to Darjeeling on Sep 10, receives "the call within the call" to serve the poor
- 1948: Starts teaching poor children, opens her first slum school; Shifts to 14, Creek Lane
- 1950: Founds the Missionaries of Charity on Oct 7 with 12 sisters after getting the green signal from the Vatican
- 1951: Receives Indian Citizenship
- 1952: Opens first home for dying at Kalighat in South Kolkata. Names it Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart)
- 1953: Leaves Creek Lane and shifts to a two-storeyed building on Lower Circular Road; it's now called Mother House, the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity
- 1957: Begins her work with lepers for which her Order becomes well known around the world
- 1962: Receives Padma Shri from the President for her humanitarian work
- 1963: Founds Missionaries of Charity, Brothers
- 1965: Catholic Church grants permission for setting up missions outside India; the first opens that year in Venezuela
- 1971: Receives Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and uses money to build a leper colony
- 1976: Founds Missionaries of Charity, Contemplative Sisters
- 1979: Receives Nobel Peace Prize for work with the destitute and dying
- 1980: Conferred India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna
- 1982: Rescues 37 mentally disabled children from a hospital in besieged Beirut
- 1983: Visits Pope John Paul II. Hospitalized with heart attack, first of several
- 1984: Founds Missionaries of Charity Fathers
- 1985: Awarded Medal of Freedom, highest US civilian honour
- 1990: Resigns as superior general of the Missionaries of Charity but is re-elected
- 1997: Steps down as head of her order
- 1997: Dies of heart failure in Kolkata on Sep 5, aged 87
- 2003: Beatified by Pope John Paul II-placing her a step from sainthood
- 2016: Declared a saint by Pope Francis on Sep 4