Few women have achieved so much by way of care and compassion for their fellow human beings as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, known to the world as simply Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun who set up homes for the orphaned, poor, sick and dying in Calcutta, India.
Born in Yugoslavia in 1910 as the daughter of Albanian parents, she received her education at a government school in Yugoslavia before joining the Sisters of Loretto at Rathfarnam in Ireland. She went as a young woman to Calcutta in 1929 where she was principal of St Mary's High School.
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity (Sisters) in 1950 and many other such movements in later years to give free service to the poor and the unwanted, irrespective of caste, creed, nationality, race or place.
She has established homes and orphanages in the slums and also homes for unwanted, crippled and mentally-retarded children. Mother Teresa has additionally widened her net of compassion to organise mobile general clinics and centres for the malnourished, mobile clinics and rehabilitation centres for leprosy patients, homes for drug addicts and alcoholics and night shelters for the homeless.
Not surprisingly, Mother Teresa has received awards almost too numerous to mention from throughout the world, including honorary degrees from Cambridge, the Ramon Magsaysay International Award, the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, the Kennedy International Award, the Jawaharlal Nehru International Award, the first Albert Schweitzer International Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She has also been the subject of many books on her life and work.
In recognition of her services to the needy, the University has resolved to confer upon her degree of Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa.
