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(1910-1997) Born Agnes Gonxhua Bojaxhiu in Albania; former member of the Sisters of Loretto; founder (1950) of the Roman Catholic Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. A teacher by training, Mother Teresa has worked in India since 1928, after 1946 exclusively in the service of the poor, providing hospital care to the sick and infirm. After 1965, these efforts took on a global dimension, and to date the Missionaries of Charity have opened 443 relief centers in 95 countries. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel peace prize. Despite her achievements, she has sometimes been criticized for treating the symptoms of poverty as opposed to attacking its root cause in inegalitarian social structures.

—W. E. Hewitt

Reference

F. Zambonini, Teresa of Calcutta (New York: Alba, 1993).

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