Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in 1910, in what was then Yugoslavia. Her parents were Albanian. By the time she was twelve years old, she knew she wanted to be a missionary. When she was eighteen, she entered the community of the Loreto Sisters in Calcutta, India. Sister Teresa taught geography at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta. She later became principal. Her students were all from well-off families. The poor children from Calcutta’s slums were not allowed admission. On September 10, 1946, while riding on a train, Sister Teresa felt an unmistakable call from God to serve the poorest of the poor. By the spring of 1948, she had received permission to go out of her safe convent walls and work among the poor. In August, she put on a white cotton sari edged in blue, which was to become her new Order’s habit. Soon other young women joined her and in 1950 the Missionaries of Charity became a new community in the Church.
