Teresa of Ávila

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in what is now North Macedonia. As a child, she was fascinated by the missionaries in Bengal and decided at age 12 to become a nun. In 1928, at age 18, she joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland. She began her novitiate in Darjeeling, India, in 1929, taking religious vows in 1931 and choosing to be named after St. Thérèse de Lisieux, patron saint of missionaries. In 1950, after hearing God’s voice on the way to Calcutta, she founded the Missionaries of Charity. Devoted to giving "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor,” the order helps people dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis and runs soup kitchens, medical dispensaries, mobile clinics, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, the year she died. In 2016, she was canonized as St. Teresa of Calcutta.