MaltaPost plc marks the life of Mother Teresa by commemorating the 25th anniversary of her passing, with a specially designed stamp and a miniature sheet.
Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje, in 1910, Mother Teresa as she came to be known, was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun who spent most of her life in India. At 18 she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, to learn English. She was intent on becoming a missionary and English was the language of instruction of the Sisters of Loreto in India.
She arrived in India in 1929 and began her novitiate in Darjeeling, where she learned Bengali and taught at St. Teresa's School, close to her convent. She took her first religious vows on 24 May 1931 and chose to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries.
Teresa took her solemn vows in 1937 while she was a teacher at the school in Entally, taking the style of 'Mother' in line with the Loreto custom. She served there for nearly twenty years and was appointed headmistress. Although Mother Teresa enjoyed teaching, she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty in Calcutta.
In 1946, while travelling from Calcutta to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat, she felt that she heard the call of her inner conscience, to serve the poor of India. She asked for and received permission to leave the school and began missionary work with the poor - replacing her traditional habit with the now recognisable simple, white, cotton sari with two blue borders.
Four years later, joined by a group of young women, she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta - a religious community that would care for " . . . all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden and are shunned by everyone".
Her community caught the attention of local officials who helped her open her first hospice by converting an abandoned Hindu temple. By 2012, her community had grown to over 4,500 nuns active in 123 countries. Today the congregation manages homes and outreach clinics for people who are dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis. It runs soup kitchens, dispensaries, children, and family counselling programmes, as well as orphanages and schools.
In 1979 she was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Mother Teresa died in September 1997 due to heart failure and in 2016 was canonized by Pope Francis in St Peter's Square, Vatican City. She remains one of the most widely admired personalities of the 20th century.
This stamp and miniature sheet were designed by Shanice Farrugia.
