Mother Teresa Timeline

On 10 September 1946, while travelling by train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Teresa experienced what she described as 'the call within the call' to serve the poor of India for Jesus.

She began missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari with a blue border.

In 1950, Mother Teresa established the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation initially dedicated to serving 'the poorest of the poor' in the slums of Calcutta, choosing a white sari with two blue borders as its habit.

Image source: Missionaries of Charity

On 7 October 1950, Mother Teresa received Vatican permission for the diocesan congregation, which would become the Missionaries of Charity.

In 1952, Mother Teresa opened her first hospice with help from Calcutta officials, providing care for those dying in poverty.

As the Missionaries of Charity took in an increasing number of homeless children, Mother Teresa opened Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart, in 1955 as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.

The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963, expanding the order's religious branches.

Mother Teresa expanded the congregation abroad, opening a house in Venezuela in 1965 with five sisters.

Responding to requests by many priests, Mother Teresa founded the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests in 1981 and, with Joseph Langford, the Missionaries of Charity Fathers in 1984, combining the vocational aims of her order with the resources of the priesthood.

Image source: Corpus Christi (2019 film)

In 1962, Mother Teresa received both the Padma Shri from India and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding, given for work in South or East Asia.

Image source: Ramon Magsaysay Award

She received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1969, one of several Indian honours bestowed upon her.

Pope Paul VI gave Mother Teresa the inaugural Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, commending her work with the poor, her display of Christian charity and her efforts for peace.

Image source: Pope Paul VI

In April 1976, Mother Teresa visited the University of Scranton, where she received the La Storta Medal for Human Service, and she also received the Albert Schweitzer International Prize in 1975 and the Pacem in Terris Award in 1976.

Among other civilian awards, Mother Teresa received the Balzan Prize for promoting humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples in 1978.

In 1979, Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize 'for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace'.

Mother Teresa later received other Indian awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 1980.

The United Kingdom and the United States bestowed a number of awards on Mother Teresa, culminating in the Order of Merit in 1983 and honorary citizenship of the United States on 16 November 1996.

Image source: Order of Merit

Mother Teresa's Albanian homeland gave her the Golden Honour of the Nation in 1994, but her acceptance of this and the Haitian Legion of Honour was controversial.

On 16 November 1996, Mother Teresa was granted honorary citizenship of the United States. By then the Missionaries of Charity operated 517 missions in over 100 countries.

Mother Teresa was catapulted to fame via Malcolm Muggeridge's 1969 BBC documentary Something Beautiful for God; he released a book of the same name in 1971.

In 1971, Mother Teresa visited Belfast with four of her sisters during the Troubles. Reportedly under pressure from senior clergy who believed 'the missionary traffic should be in other direction', she and her sisters abruptly left the city in 1973 despite local welcome and support.

At the height of the Siege of Beirut in 1982, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front-line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. That year she was also appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia.

Image source: Siege of Beirut

Mother Teresa had a heart attack in Rome in 1983 while visiting Pope John Paul II. Following a second attack in 1989, she received a pacemaker.

Mother Teresa Women's University, in Kodaikanal, was established in 1984 as a public university by the government of Tamil Nadu.

Image source: Mother Teresa Women's University

Mother Teresa visited Armenia after the devastating 1988 earthquake and met with Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov.

In 1991, Mother Teresa returned to Albania for the first time, opening a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana. That same year, the Senate of Serampore College (University) awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Divinity, and after pneumonia in Mexico she suffered additional heart problems.

Christopher Hitchens' 1994 documentary Hell's Angel argued that Mother Teresa urged the poor to accept their fate while the rich were portrayed as favoured by God. Also in 1994, she argued that sexual abuse allegations against Jesuit priest Donald McGuire were untrue; McGuire was convicted in 2006 and again in 2009.

Image source: Hell's Angel (TV programme)

On 13 March 1997, Mother Teresa resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity, which by then had grown from 13 members in Calcutta to more than 4,000 sisters managing orphanages, AIDS hospices and charity centres worldwide.

In 2009, the Memorial House of Mother Teresa was opened in her hometown of Skopje, North Macedonia.

Image source: Memorial House of Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 at the age of 87. After her death, the Holy See began the process of beatification, and Brian Kolodiejchuk was appointed postulator by the Diocese of Calcutta.

The group investigating Mother Teresa's life found no obstacle to her canonisation and issued its nihil obstat on 21 April 1999. That same year, she headed Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

In 2002 the Vatican recognised as a miracle the healing of a tumour in the abdomen of Monica Besra, an Indian woman, after the application of a locket containing Teresa's picture.

Mother Teresa was beatified on 19 October 2003 and was known by Catholics as 'Blessed'.

On 4 September 2016, Pope Francis canonised Mother Teresa at a ceremony in St. Peter's Square, and she became known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

Image source: Mother Teresa & Me

On 6 September 2017, about 500 people attended a Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary where Dominique Gomes read the decree instituting Mother Teresa as co-patron of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta alongside St Francis Xavier, who had been named first patron saint of Calcutta in 1986.

Image source: Archdiocese of Calcutta