Mother Teresa: Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and missionary (1910–1997)

For over forty years, she took care of needs of those without money, those who were sick, those without parents, and those dying in Calcutta (Kolkata), guided in part by the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi. She was born in Skopje, Macedonia, and died in Calcutta.

Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Born	(1910-08-26)26 August 1910 Skopje, Ottoman Empire
Died	5 September 1997(1997-09-05) (aged 87) Calcutta, India
Occupation(s)	Roman Catholic nun, humanitarian

As the Missionaries of Charity grew under Mother's leadership, they expanded their ministry to other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally well known as an advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a movie and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She did not think women had the right to have abortions and said "The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me?".

Following her death she was beatified (the first stage of sainthood) by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Mother Teresa was named a Saint on 4 September 2016 by his Holiness Pope at Saint Peter, Vatican. Mother Teresa recieved many awards like the Bharat Ratna in 1980 and Nobel prize in 1979 etc. She is known for serving humanity.

Mother Teresa received criticism over the years, especially in recent years as debate about abortion grew. Christopher Hitchens says that, instead of trying to help the poor, she encouraged them to endure pain and continue to suffer. Hitchens also thinks she was against ending poverty and raising the social status of women. Hitchens wrote a book on Teresa called The Missionary Position. In an article for Slate, Hitchens writes "Mother Teresa was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God".