Catherine Lu

5/22/14
1st Hour
The Saint of the Gutters
When you do good, do it quietly, as if you were throwing a stone into the sea,
Agness mother had said. This is what Mother Teresa lived by and these sayings
impacted her tremendously. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later known as Mother Teresa,
was born on August 26, 1910 in the city Skopje, Macedonia. Mother Teresa is the most
influential person in history and has inspired millions.
Agnes, or Mother Teresa, was the youngest child of an Albanian family in Skopje,
Macedonia. Other than herself, her family consisted of her older sister Aga, her older
brother Lazar, and her parents Nikola and Drana. Her father, Nikola, was an
accomplished building contractor and merchant who traveled widely in Europe. Agness
father later died at 45 years old. His relatives and doctors suspected that he might have
been poisoned because of his political power. Nikolas death had a huge impact on
Agnes and her family. Without their father, they had no source of income. Drana, their
mother, became too depressed to manage their household. Aga, the oldest child, was
fifteen and she had to work so that they would have enough money. Drana still
influenced Agness life greatly because of her kind acts. Her widowed mother still
volunteered in the neighborhood and later took in six orphaned children into her home.
Then, at the age of seventeen, she joined the Irish sisters of Loreto. She was later sent
to Darjeeling, India. Soon after, Agnes Gonxha chose her new name to honor Saint
Therese of Lisieux, a French nun who lived a quiet life of prayer. Since another nun at
Darjeeling already chose the French name Marie-Therese, Agnes Gonxha adopted the

Spanish spelling Teresa instead. In September 1946, she received what she believed
was a divine call to leave the convent and to serve the poor. After just six months of
essential medical training, she went into Calcuttas slums with a goal to help the
unwanted, the unloved, and the uncared. Mother Teresa also adopted the sari dress
and started teaching and tending to the sick and dying.
Mother Teresa has also achieved many accomplishments in her life. In Calcutta,
she visited families in the slums, aiding the people weak from hunger and dying of
tuberculosis. Mother Teresa had also started an outdoor school for destitute children.
During the 1950s and 1960s, she established a leper colony, an orphanage, a nursing
home, a family clinic, and a string of mobile health clinics. In 1971, Mother Teresa
traveled to New York City where she opened a soup kitchen as well as a home for
people infected with HIV/AIDS. Mother Teresa went to Bhopal, India when a poisonous
gas leak killed and injured thousands of people. Also, she went to the Soviet Union
because of a massive nuclear accident in Chernobyl to comfort the radiation victims. In
1982 between attacks of artillery fire, Mother Teresa took a Red convoy across the city
of Beirut, Lebanon to rescue 38 severely disabled and mentally ill children who had
been trapped in a hospital. Mother Teresa has also received many awards for her
remarkable work. For example, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1979.
She had made a request that the $5,000 normally spent on the awards banquet be
given to the hungry instead, and another $64,000 in donations was added by Norwegian
supporters. Mother Teresa also received the Jewel of India, which is the highest honor
bestowed on Indian civilians. The U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom was another
award she received, which is the highest American civilian award. Mother Teresa

received a $15,000 award from the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation in 1971 and
donated it to a medical center for the handicapped in India. She also won $25,000 for
the 1971 Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in Rome and it went to establishing a home for
lepers.
Mother Teresas most lasting impact would be the Missionaries of Charity. On
October 7, 1950, the new order of Missionaries of Charity was formally approved,
starting only with twelve members. Their mission is to serve the poorest of the poor.
Those included the abandoned or orphaned children, the aged, the blind, the variously
disabled, and the dying. In North America, the Missionaries of Charity have their main
house in the Bronx, New York. They also do work in about two dozen different U.S.
cities, Canada, and Mexico. The United States have soup kitchens, nursing homes,
shelters, and hospices all founded by Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa later died
in Calcutta on September 5, 1997 from a heart attack. By the time of her death, the
Missionaries of Charity included more than 4,800 people, with 610 foundations in 123
countries on all seven continents. Sr. Nirmala Joshi, who took over for Mother Teresa,
has done an admirable job of leading Missionaries of Charity. The government of India
honored her with a state funeral, and today her tomb remains a pilgrimage and prayer
for thousands of visitors. In October 19, 2003, Pope John Paul II beatified Mother
Teresa, giving her the title of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, exciting a crowd of 300,000
people gathered in St. Peters Square, showing her impact on the society.
Mother Teresas life shows us that one can accomplish and achieve great things
by working diligently and selflessly on small things daily. President Clinton said, She
[Mother Teresa] has brought hope and love into the lives of millions of orphaned and

abandoned children the world over. Even though she has gone through many
challenges, Mother Teresa still continued to think about and help others. Mother Teresa
had the biggest impact on the world because of her altruistic actions.

The Saint of the Gutters

Catherine Lu

Advanced English
Mrs. Ulewicz
May 27, 2014

Works Cited
Gold, Maya. Mother Teresa. New York: DK, 2008. Print.
"Teresa (1910-1997)." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 11 May 2014.
"Charity, Missionaries of." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 11
May 2014.
Anderson, Amy. "Profiles in Greatness: Mother Teresa." Success.com. Success. Web. 13 May
2014.
" Tucker, Ruth A. "Ministries of Mercy: Mother Teresa." Christian Today Library. Christian
Today, 1 Jan. 2000. Web. 14 May 2014.
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 14 May 2014.
Finessi, Mariaelena. "How India Remembers Mother Teresa." Zenit.org. 29 July 2010. Web.
15 May 2014.
McCarthy, Colman. "Nobel-Winner Aided the Poorest." The Washington Post. 6 Sept. 1997.
Web. 21 May 2014.
Formal Outline

I. Introduction
a. Hook/Quote
b. Date and Place of Birth/Birth Name
c. Claim
II. Background
a. Family
b. Challenges/fathers death
c. Before going to Calcutta and reason why
III. Accomplishments
a. Foundations/Establishments
i. Calcutta slums
ii. Leper colony, orphanage, etc.
iii. NYC soup kitchens
b. Bhopal, Chernobyl accident, West Beirut
c. Awards
i. Nobel Peace Prize
ii. Jewel of India
d. Donations to Charity
IV. Impact
a. Missionaries of Charity
i. Mission statement
ii. Impact on us; main house in the Bronx
iii. Work in different countries
iv. Continues after her death
v. Sr. Nirmali Joshi
b. Nirmal Hriday
c. Overall Impact after Death
V. Conclusion
a. What she has taught us
b. Quote about her life
c. Restate claim