Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia, but at the time a part of the Ottoman Turk empire. She was just 18 when she joined the Loreto Order and took up the name Sister Teresa. A year later, she arrived in Calcutta to teach at St Mary's High School.
In 1946, Sister Teresa received a call from God asking her to serve the poorest of the poor. Following this, she quit the Loreto Order and set up the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.
Winner of the Padma Shri (1962), the Nobel Peace Prize (1979), and the US Medal of Freedom (1985), among other honours and accolades, Mother Teresa worked tirelessly for the uplift of the poor right until her death in September 1997.