Look up Teresa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Teresa, Theresa, and Therese (French: Thérèse) are feminine given names. The name is thought to be derived from the Greek verb θήρίζεἰν therizein, meaning to harvest.

Its popularity likely increased due to the prominence of several Roman Catholic saints, including Teresa of Ávila, Thérèse of Lisieux and, most recently, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

The popularity of this name in the United States over the last 15 years is falling, according to the US Census. Spelled "Theresa", it was ranked as the 852nd most popular name for girls born in 2008, down from 226th in 1992 (it ranked 65th in 1950, and 102nd in 1900). Spelled "Teresa", it was the 580th most popular name for girls born in 2008, down from 206th in 1992 (it ranked 81st in 1950, and 220th in 1900).

Name variants[link]

• Renia (Polish)
• Resa (German)
• Resel (German)
• Resi (German)
• Rezi (Hungarian)
• Rézi (Czech)
• Riza (Hungarian)
• Rizus (Hungarian)
• Rocel (German)
• Teca (Hungarian)
• Techa (Spanish)
• Tere (Spanish)
• Terecita (Spanish)
• Tereixa (Galician)
• Terenia (Polish)
• Teresa (Danish, English, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish)
• Terese (Basque)
• Teresia (Swedish)
• Teresinha (Portuguese)
• Teresita (Spanish)
• Tereska (Polish)
• Tereson (French)
• Teressa (Portuguese)
• Teréz (Hungarian)
• Tereza (Breton, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Portuguese, Romanian)
• Teréza (Hungarian)
• Terēze (Latvian)
• Terézia (Slovak)
• Terezia (Hungarian)
• Terezie (Czech)
• Terezija (Slovene)
• Terezilya (Russian)
• Terezinha (Portuguese)
• Terezka (Czech)
• Teri (English)
• Terike (Hungarian)
• Terina (Italian)
• Terinka (Czech)
• Tèrìz (Lebanese Arabic)
• Terka (Czech)
• Terri (English)
• Terrie (English)
• Terry (English)
• Tersa (Italian)
• Teruska (Hungarian)
• Tesa (Polish)
• Tesia (Polish)
• Tess (English)
• Tessa (English)
• Tessan (Swedish)
• Tessania (German)
• Tessie (English)
• Tete (Spanish)
• Tété (French)
• Thera (Dutch)
• Therasia (Latin)
• Theresa (Danish, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Indonesian)
• Thérèse (French)
• Therese (Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish)
• Theresia (Dutch, German, Greek, Swedish, Indonesian)
• Toiréasa (Irish Gaelic)
• Tracee (English)
• Tracey (English)
• Traci (English)
• Tracie (English)
• Tracy (English)
• Treasa (Irish Gaelic)
• Threissya (Malayalam)
• Trees (Dutch)
• Tresa (German)
• Trescha (German)
• Treszka (Hungarian)
• Zilya (Russian)
• Zizi (Romanian)^[1]

Translations[link]

• 德肋撒 (Chinese)
• テレサ (Japanese)
• 테레사 (Korean)

People[link]

In aristocracy:

• Teresa Lubomirska, Polish noble lady
• Teresa of the Two Sicilies, Empress-consort of Brazil
• Teresa of Portugal (disambiguation)
• Maria Theresa (disambiguation)

In religion:

• Mother Teresa, Albanian nun, Nobel Laureate
• Several Saint Teresa, including:
  • Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, French Carmelite nun and Doctor of the Church
  • Saint Teresa of Avila, Spanish Carmelite nun, prominent Counter-Reformer and Doctor of the Church
• Teresa Chikaba, Guinean princess declared as Venerable by the Catholic Church
• Teresa Demjanovich, American nun of the Sisters of Charity

In the arts:

• Teresa Berganza, Spanish opera singer
• Teresa Brewer, American pop and jazz singer
• Teresa Carpenter, Pulitzer prize winning American author
• Teresa Carpio, Cantopop singer and actress
• Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan musician
• Teresa Cheung (socialite), Hong Kong socialite and actress
• Teresa De Sio, Italian folk singer-songwriter
• Teresa Edgerton, American author of fantasy novels and short stories
• Theresa Fu, Hong Kong singer and actress
• Therese Grankvist, Swedish singer
• Teresa Graves, American actress and singer
• Teresa Medeiros, American romance novelist
• Teresa Nielsen Hayden, American writer and teacher
• Teresa Parente, American actress
• Theresa Randle, American actress
• Theresa Russell, American actress
• Teresa Salgueiro, Portuguese singer
• Teresa Simas, Portuguese dancer and choreographer
• Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
• Teresa Teng, Taiwanese queen of pop
• Teresa Villaverde, Portuguese film director
• Lady Teresa Waugh, British novelist and translator
• Teresa Wentzler, American artist and counted cross-stitch designer
• Teresa Wright, Academy Award-winning American actress
• Teresa Żarnowerówna, Polish avant-garde artist

In politics:

• Therese Coffey, UK Member of Parliament
• Teresa Gutierrez, American politician
• Teresa Heinz (born 1938), former widow of U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III; wife of Senator John Kerry
• Teresa Isaac, American politician, former mayor of Lexington, Kentucky
• Teresa Kok, Malaysian Member of Parliament
• Theresa May, UK Member of Parliament
• Theresa Villiers, UK Member of Parliament

In sports:

• Therese Crawford, American volleyball player
• Teresa Ciepły, Polish sprinter
• Teresa Earnhardt, widow of racing legend Dale Earnhardt
• Teresa Edwards, American basketball player
• Teresa Machado, Portuguese athlete
• Teresa Piccini, Mexican ten-pin bowler
• Teresa Rivera, Mexican swimmer
• Teresa Rohmann, German medley swimmer
• Teresa Vaill, American racewalker
• Theresa Zabell, Spanish sailor

Others:

• Teresa Cormack, murder victim from New Zealand
• Teresa Sickles, wife of Daniel Edgar Sickles, who stood trial for killing her lover
• Vincent Teresa, American mobster

This page or section lists people that share the same given name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.

Fictional characters[link]

• Teresa Bryant, on the British soap opera Coronation Street
• Teresa Cammeniti, on the Australian soap opera Neighbours
• Theresa Rourke Cassidy, the alter-ego of the Marvel Comics heroine Siryn
• Teresa Lisbon, one of the main characters in the drama The Mentalist
• Theresa "Terri" McGreggor, in Degrassi: The Next Generation
• Teresa Moreno, wife of Richard Sharpe in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series of historical fiction
• Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald, main protagonist from soap opera "Passions"
• Teresa of the Faint Smile, one of the main characters in the popular anime and manga series Claymore
• Teresa Chávez, main protagonist and villain from the TV Series Teresa
• Teresa Wisemail, from the PlayStation role-playing game Suikoden II
• Thérèse Defarge, the main villain of Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities
• Theresa, an immortal seeress, one of the main characters in the Fable video game series
• Theresa McQueen, from the British soap opera Hollyoaks
• Tess Durbeyfield, from Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles
• Teresa, Barbie's best friend
• Teresa, an important character in James Dashner's books The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials
• Tereza, from Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Notes[link]

Teresa Teng 鄧麗君
200px
Chinese name	鄧麗君 (Traditional)
Chinese name	邓丽君 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Dèng Lìjūn (Mandarin)
Pe̍h-ōe-jī	Tēng Lê-kun (Hokkien)
Birth name	Teng Li-chun (鄧麗筠)
Ancestry	Daming, Hebei, China
Origin	Republic of China (Taiwan)
Born	(1953-01-29)January 29, 1953 Baojhong, Yunlin, Taiwan
Died	May 8, 1995(1995-05-08) (aged 42) Chiang Mai, Thailand
Resting place	Chin Pao Shan (Jinbaoshan), Taiwan 25°15′04″N 121°36′14″E / 25.251°N 121.604°E / 25.251; 121.604
Other name(s)	Teresa Tang, Teresa Deng
Occupation	Singer
Genre(s)	Mandopop, Cantopop, J-Pop
Instrument(s)	Singing
Label(s)	Taiwan: Yeu Jow (1967–1971), Haishan (1971), Life[disambiguation needed ] (1972–1976), Kolin (1977–1983), PolyGram (1984–1992) Hong Kong: EMI (1971), Life[disambiguation needed ] (1971–1976), PolyGram (1975–1992) Japan: Polydor K.K. (1974–1981), Taurus (1983–1995)
Years active	1967–1995
Awards Golden Melody Awards Special Award 1996

Teresa Teng (January 29, 1953 – May 8, 1995) (traditional Chinese: 鄧麗君; simplified Chinese: 邓丽君; pinyin: Dèng Lìjūn; Wade–Giles: Teng Li-chun; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tēng Lē-kun, Japanese: テレサ・テン), was an immensely popular and influential Chinese pop singer from Taiwan. Teng's voice and songs are instantly recognized throughout East Asia and in areas with large Asian populations. It is often said, "Wherever there are Chinese people, the songs of Teresa Teng can be heard." Her songs enjoy popularity among Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Indonesian listeners as well.

Teng was known for her folk songs and romantic ballads. Many became standards in her lifetime, such as "When Will You Return?" (何日君再來) and "The Moon Represents My Heart" (月亮代表我的心).^[1] She recorded songs not only in her native Mandarin but also in Taiwanese, Cantonese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and English.^{[citation needed]}

Teng, a lifelong sufferer from asthma, died in 1995 from a severe respiratory attack while on holiday in Thailand. She was 42.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Teresa Teng was born in Baozhong, Yunlin County, Taiwan, to a mainland Chinese family from Hebei. She was educated at Ginling Girls High School. As a young child, Teng won awards for her singing at talent competitions. Her first major prize was in 1964 when she sang "Visiting Yingtai" from Shaw Brothers' Huangmei opera movie, "The Love Eterne" (梁祝), at an event hosted by Broadcasting Corporation of China. She was soon able to support her family with her singing. Taiwan's rising manufacturing economy in the 1960s made the purchase of records easier for more families. With her father's approval, she quit high school to pursue singing professionally.

Career[link]

Teng's singing style conveyed simplicity and sincerity. Yeh Yueh-Yu, a professor of Cultural Theory at the University of Southern California said, "It was the sweetness in her voice that made her famous. She had a perfect voice for folk songs and ballads, and she added traditional folk song stylings into Western-style compositions." Her voice was also described as being "like weeping and pleading, but with strength, capable of drawing in and hypnotizing listeners." Songwriter Tsuo Hung-yun said Teng's voice was "seven parts sweetness, three parts tears."

Teng gained her first taste of fame in 1968 when a performance on a popular Taiwanese music program led to a record contract. She released several albums within the next few years under the Life Records label. In 1973 she attempted to crack the Japanese market by signing with the Polydor Japan label and taking part in Japan's Kōhaku Uta Gassen, a year-round singing match of the most successful artists. She was named "Best New Singing Star".^[2] Following her success in Japan, Teng sang many Japanese songs, including original hits such as "Give yourself to the flow of Time" (時の流れに身をまかせ, Toki no Nagare ni Mi wo Makase^?) which was later covered in Chinese as "I Only Care About You" (我只在乎你).

In 1974 the song "Airport" (空港) became a hit in Japan. Teng remained popular in Japan despite being barred from the country briefly in 1979 for having a fake Indonesian passport she purchased for US$20,000. The subterfuge had seemed necessary due to the official break in relations between Taiwan and Japan that occurred shortly after the People's Republic of China replaced the ROC in the United Nations.

Teng's popularity boomed worldwide in the 1970s after her debut in Japan. Singing by now in Cantonese, Japanese and English besides her native Mandarin, Teng's popularity quickly grew in Malaysia and Indonesia. In Taiwan she was known not only as the island's most popular export, but as "the soldier's sweetheart" because of her frequent performances for servicemen. Teng was herself the child of a military family. Her concerts for troops featured popular music and Taiwanese folk songs that appealed to natives of the island as well as Chinese folk songs that appealed to homesick refugees of the civil war.

In the early 1980s, continuing political tension between mainland China and Taiwan led to her music, along with that of other singers from Taiwan and Hong Kong, being banned for several years in mainland China as too "bourgeois".^[3] Her popularity in China continued to grow nonetheless thanks to the black market. As Teng songs continued to be played everywhere, from nightclubs to government buildings, the ban on her music was soon lifted. Her Chinese fans nicknamed her "Little Deng" because she had the same family name as Deng Xiaoping; it was said that Deng the Communist leader ruled China by day, but that Deng the singer ruled China by night.^{[citation needed]}

Teng's contract with Polydor ended in 1981. She signed a contract with Taurus Records in 1983 and made a successful comeback appearance in Japan. In 1983 Taurus released her album, dan dan you qing (淡淡幽情). This album consisted of settings of twelve poems from the Tang and Song dynasties. The music, written by composers of her earlier hits, blended modern and traditional styles of East and West. The most popular single from the album today is "Wishing We Last Forever" (但願人長久). The number of hits released in the years from 1984–1989 make them "Teresa Teng's Golden Years" in the views of her fans. She was the first singer to win the All-Japan Record Awards for four consecutive years (1984–1988).

Teng performed in Paris during the 1989 Tiananmen student protests on behalf of the students and proclaimed her support for democracy. On May 27, 1989, over 300,000 people attended the concert called "Democratic songs dedicated to China" (民主歌聲獻中華) at the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong. One of the highlights was her rendition of "My Home Is on the Other Side of the Mountain."^[4]

Though Teng performed in many countries around the world during her career, her hopes of performing one day in mainland China never materialized. The Communist Party of China eventually invited her to do so in the 1990s but she died before the opportunity came.^[5]

Death and commemorations[link]

Teng died from a severe asthma attack while on holiday in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at the age of 42 (43 by Chinese reckoning) on May 8, 1995. She was an asthmatic throughout her adult life. Teng was given state honors at her funeral in Taiwan, with the flag of the Republic of China draped over her casket and then president Lee Teng-hui in attendance among thousands in mourning.

She was buried in a mountainside tomb at Chin Pao San, a cemetery in Jinshan, Taipei County (now New Taipei City) in northern Taiwan. The grave site features a statue of Teng and a large electronic piano keyboard set in the ground that can be played by visitors who step on the keys. The memorial is often visited by her fans. (This represents a noteworthy departure from the traditional Chinese practice of shunning grave sites.)^[6] Geotagging of the Teresa Teng Memorial Park (Yun Garden)^[7]: Geolocation on Google Maps from the tomb of Teresa Teng with view from the driveway on her golden statue: 25.248582,121.601843 (Latitude/Longitude).

A house she bought in 1986 in Hong Kong at No. 18 Carmel Street has also become a site of pilgrimage for her fans soon after her death. Plans to sell the home to finance a museum in Shanghai were made known in 2002,^[8] and subsequently sold for HK$ 32 million. It closed on what would have been her 51st birthday on January 29, 2004.^[9]

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of her death, the Teresa Teng Culture and Education Foundation launched a campaign entitled "Feel Teresa Teng". In addition to organizing an anniversary concert in Hong Kong and Taiwan, music fans paid homage at her shrine at Chin Pao San Cemetery. Additionally, some of her dresses, jewelry and personal items were placed on exhibition at Yuzi Paradise, an art park outside Guilin, China.^[10]

In May 2002, the wax figure of Teng was unveiled at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong.

Influence on popular culture[link]

• Her songs have been covered by a number of singers, including Faye Wong who released a tribute album (Decadent Sounds of Faye, 靡靡之音, 1995) of Teng's popular hits.
• The 1996 Hong Kong film Comrades: Almost a Love Story (甜蜜蜜 – Tiánmìmì) directed by Peter Chan features the tragedy and legacy of Teresa Teng in a subplot to the main story. The movie won best picture in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and at the Seattle Film Festival in the United States.
• Her songs are featured in various films, e.g. Rush Hour 2, Prison On Fire, Formosa Betrayed, Gomorrah.
• In 2007, TV Asahi produced a tanpatsu (単発, TV movie), entitled Teresa Teng Monogatari (テレサ・テン物語)^[11] to commemorate the 13th anniversary of her death. Actress Yoshino Kimura starred as Teresa Teng.
• Teresa Teng, Judy Ongg (1950–), Agnes Chan (1955–), Ouyang Feifei (1949–), and Yu Yar (尤雅, 1953–) were billed as the "Five Great Asian Divas" during the 1970s and 1980s due to their huge cross-cultural popularity.^{[citation needed]} Teng's music remains the most popular.
• Her song "Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase" was played numerous times in the film "Ban zhi yan" (also known as "Metade Fumaça" which means "half smoked" in Portuguese), including the opening scene. It can be called the theme of the film.

Awards received in Japan[link]

Teng received the following awards in Japan:^[12]

• The New Singer Award for「空港」(Kūkō) in 1974.
• The Gold Award in 1986 for「時の流れに身をまかせ」(Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase).
• The Grand Prix for「つぐない」(Tsugunai) in 1984:「愛人」(Aijin) in 1985; and「時の流れに身をまかせ」(Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase) in 1986. This was the first time anyone had won the Grand Prix three years in a row.
• The Outstanding Star Award for「別れの予感」(Wakare no Yokan) in 1987.
• The Cable Radio Music Award for「別れの予感」(Wakare no Yokan) in 1987 and 1988.
• The Cable Radio Special Merit Award (有線功労賞) in 1995 for three consecutive Grand Prix wins.

References[link]

See also[link]

• Zai shui yi fang (song)
• Ni zen me shuo

External links[link]

	Taiwan portal
	Biography portal
	Music portal

• Teresa Teng Foundation 鄧麗君文教基金會
• 鄧麗君 Teresa Teng テレサ・テン – One And Only
• Teresa Teng at Allmusic
• Teresa Teng discography at MusicBrainz
• Teresa Teng at the Internet Movie Database

Sergio Endrigo (June 15, 1933 in Pola - September 7, 2005 in Rome) was an Italian singer-songwriter.

Born in Pola, Istria, Italy (today Pula, Croatia) he has been often compared—for style and nature—to authors of the so called "Genoa school" like Gino Paoli, Fabrizio De André, Luigi Tenco, and Bruno Lauzi.

He won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1968 with the song "Canzone per te", sung with Roberto Carlos. The same year he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song "Marianne."

External links[link]

• Official website: biography, discography, filmography (in Italian)
• Istria on the Internet, Prominent Istrians

Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa at a pro-life meeting in 1986 in Bonn, West Germany
Religion	Catholic
Order	Sisters of Loreto (1928–1950) Missionaries of Charity (1950–1997)
Personal
Nationality	Indian
Born	Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (1910-08-26)August 26, 1910 Üsküb, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire which since 1945 is Skopje (Скопје), capital of the Republic of Macedonia
Died	September 5, 1997(1997-09-05) (aged 87) Calcutta, India
Senior posting
Title	Superior General
Period in office	1950–1997
Successor	Sister Nirmala

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta^[1] (Albanian: Nënë Tereza) as she is known to the Catholic Church, or Mother Teresa as she is commonly known, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (pronounced [aɡˈnɛs ˈɡɔndʒa bɔjaˈdʒiu]). Although born on the 26 August 1910, she considered 27 August, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday". “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.”^[2] Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 and is not yet a Catholic Saint. In late 2003, the leaders of the church completed the process of beatification, the third step toward possible sainthood. A second miracle credited to Mother Teresa is required before she can be recognized as a saint by the Catholic church.^[3][4]

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor". The Missionaries of Charity at the time of her death had 610 missions in 123 countries including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programmes, orphanages and schools.

For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Her beatification by Pope John Paul II following her death gave her the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".

She was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India. Her awards include the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Pacem in Terris Award, an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, the Order of Merit from both the United Kingdom and the United States, Albania's Golden Honour of the Nation, honorary degrees, the Balzan Prize, and the Albert Schweitzer International Prize amongst many others.

Mother Teresa stated that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family." in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society—that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." She also singled out abortion as 'the greatest destroyer of peace in the world'.

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was named 18 times in the yearly Gallup's most admired man and woman poll‎ as one of the ten women around the world that Americans admired most. In 1999, a poll of Americans ranked her first in Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. In that survey, she out-polled all other volunteered answers by a wide margin, and was in first place in all major demographic categories except the very young.

Early life[link]

Memorial House of Mother Teresa, in her native Skopje.

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The Vatican states that "This luminous messenger of God’s love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history." ^[5], whereas the official website of the Nobel Prize states "Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje","Former[ly] Uskup, a town in the Ottoman Empire." ^[6]

She was the youngest of the children of a family from Shkodër, Albania, born to Nikollë and Drana Bojaxhiu.^[7] Her father, who was involved in Albanian politics, died in 1919 when she was eight years old.^[8][9] After her father's death, her mother raised her as a Roman Catholic. Her father, Nikollë Bojaxhiu was possibly from Prizren, Kosovo^[a] while her mother was possibly from a village near Đakovica, Kosovo.^[10]

According to a biography by Joan Graff Clucas, in her early years Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service in Bengal, and by age 12 was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life.^[11] Her final resolution was taken on August 15, 1928, while praying at the shrine of the Black Madonna of Letnice, where she often went on pilgrimage.^[12]

She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister.^[13]

Agnes initially went to the Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, to learn English, the language the Sisters of Loreto used to teach school children in India.^[14] She arrived in India in 1929, and began her novitiate in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains,^[15] where she learnt Bengali and taught at the St. Teresa’s School, a schoolhouse close to her convent.^[16] She took her first religious vows as a nun on 24 May 1931. At that time she chose to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries,^[17][18] but because one nun in the convent had already chosen that name, Agnes opted for the Spanish spelling Teresa.^[19]

She took her solemn vows on 14 May 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta.^[20][8][21] Teresa served there for almost twenty years and in 1944 was appointed headmistress.^[22]

Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta.^[23] The Bengal famine of 1943 brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak of Hindu/Muslim violence in August 1946 plunged the city into despair and horror.^[24]

Missionaries of Charity[link]

Missionaries of charity with the traditional sari.

On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling by train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith."^[25] As one author later noted, "Though no one knew it at the time, Sister Teresa had just become Mother Teresa".^[26]

She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital and then ventured out into the slums.^[27][28] Initially she started a school in Motijhil (Calcutta); soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving.^[29] In the beginning of 1949 she was joined in her effort by a group of young women and laid the foundations to create a new religious community helping the "poorest among the poor".

Her efforts quickly caught the attention of Indian officials, including the prime minister, who expressed his appreciation.^[30]

Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. Teresa experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. She wrote in her diary:

Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.^[31]

Teresa received Vatican permission on 7 October 1950 to start the diocesan congregation that would become the Missionaries of Charity.^[32] Its mission was to care for, in her own words, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."

It began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta; by 1997 it had grown to more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices and charity centers worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine.^[33]

In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying in space made available by the city of Calcutta. With the help of Indian officials she converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the poor. She renamed it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday).^[34] Those brought to the home received medical attention and were afforded the opportunity to die with dignity, according to the rituals of their faith; Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received the Last Rites.^[35] "A beautiful death," she said, "is for people who lived like animals to die like angels—loved and wanted."^[35]

Mother Teresa soon opened a home for those suffering from Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy, and called the hospice Shanti Nagar (City of Peace).^[36] The Missionaries of Charity also established several leprosy outreach clinics throughout Calcutta, providing medication, bandages and food.^[37]

As the Missionaries of Charity took in increasing numbers of lost children, Mother Teresa felt the need to create a home for them. In 1955 she opened the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.^[38]

The order soon began to attract both recruits and charitable donations, and by the 1960s had opened hospices, orphanages and leper houses all over India. Mother Teresa then expanded the order throughout the globe. Its first house outside India opened in Venezuela in 1965 with five sisters.^[39] Others followed in Rome, Tanzania, and Austria in 1968; during the 1970s the order opened houses and foundations in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States.^[40]

The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics were enrolled in the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests,^[41] and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers^[42] to combine the vocational aims of the Missionaries of Charity with the resources of the ministerial priesthood. By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.^[43]

International charity[link]

In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas.^[44] Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she traveled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients.^[45]

When Eastern Europe experienced increased openness in the late 1980s, she expanded her efforts to Communist countries that had previously rejected the Missionaries of Charity, embarking on dozens of projects. She was undeterred by criticism about her firm stand against abortion and divorce stating, "No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work." She visited the Soviet republic of Armenia following the 1988 Spitak earthquake, and met with Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Mother Teresa traveled to assist and minister to the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia.^[46][47][48] In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her homeland and opened a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana, Albania.

By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries.^[49] Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York; by 1984 the order operated 19 establishments throughout the country.^[50]

Declining health and death[link]

Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems. She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity, but the nuns of the order, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order.

In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She had heart surgery but it was clear that her health was declining. The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, said he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission when she was first hospitalised with cardiac problems because he thought she may be under attack by the devil.^[51]

On 13 March 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity. She died on 5 September 1997.

At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, and an associated brotherhood of 300 members, operating 610 missions in 123 countries.^[52] These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, personal helpers, orphanages, and schools. The Missionaries of Charity were also aided by Co-Workers, who numbered over 1 million by the 1990s.^[53]

Mother Teresa lay in repose in St Thomas, Kolkata for one week prior to her funeral, in September 1997. She was granted a state funeral by the Indian government in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India.^[54] Her death was mourned in both secular and religious communities. In tribute, Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that she was "a rare and unique individual who lived long for higher purposes. Her life-long devotion to the care of the poor, the sick, and the disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service to our humanity."^[55] The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar said: "She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world."^[55]

Recognition and reception[link]

In India[link]

Mother Teresa had first been recognised by the Indian government more than a third of a century earlier when she was awarded the Padma Shri in 1962 and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1969.^[56] She continued to receive major Indian awards in subsequent years, including India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in both 1972 and 1980.^[57] Her official biography was authored by an Indian civil servant, Navin Chawla, and published in 1992.^[58]

On 28 Aug 2010, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth, the government of India issued a special 5 Rupee coin, being the sum she first arrived in India with. President Pratibha Patil said of Mother Teresa, "Clad in a white sari with a blue border, she and the sisters of Missionaries of Charity became a symbol of hope to many – the aged, the destitute, the unemployed, the diseased, the terminally ill, and those abandoned by their families.

Indian views on Mother Teresa were not uniformly favourable. Her critic Aroup Chatterjee, who was born and raised in Calcutta but lived in London, reports that "she was not a significant entity in Calcutta in her lifetime". Chatterjee blames Mother Teresa for promoting a negative image of his home city.^[59] Her presence and profile grated in parts of the Indian political world, as she often opposed the Hindu Right. The Bharatiya Janata Party clashed with her over the Christian Dalits, but praised her in death, sending a representative to her funeral. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, on the other hand, opposed the government's decision to grant her a state funeral. Its secretary Giriraj Kishore said that "her first duty was to the Church and social service was incidental" and accused her of favouring Christians and conducting "secret baptisms" of the dying.^[60][61] But, in its front page tribute, the Indian fortnightly Frontline dismissed these charges as "patently false" and said that they had "made no impact on the public perception of her work, especially in Calcutta". Although praising her "selfless caring", energy and bravery, the author of the tribute was critical of Mother Teresa's public campaigning against abortion and that she claimed to be non-political when doing so.^[57]

In the rest of the world[link]

President Ronald Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony, 1985

In 1962, Mother Teresa received the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, given for work in South or East Asia. The citation said that "the Board of Trustees recognizes her merciful cognizance of the abject poor of a foreign land, in whose service she has led a new congregation".^[62] By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become an international celebrity. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God, which was filmed by Malcolm Muggeridge and his 1971 book of the same title. Muggeridge was undergoing a spiritual journey of his own at the time.^[63] During the filming of the documentary, footage taken in poor lighting conditions, particularly the Home for the Dying, was thought unlikely to be of usable quality by the crew. After returning from India, however, the footage was found to be extremely well lit. Muggeridge claimed this was a miracle of "divine light" from Mother Teresa herself.^[64] Others in the crew thought it was due to a new type of ultra-sensitive Kodak film.^[65] Muggeridge later converted to Catholicism.

Around this time, the Catholic world began to honor Mother Teresa publicly. In 1971, Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, commending her for her work with the poor, display of Christian charity and efforts for peace.^[66] She later received the Pacem in Terris Award (1976).^[67] Since her death, Mother Teresa has progressed rapidly along the steps towards sainthood, currently having reached the stage of having been beatified.

Mother Teresa was honoured by both governments and civilian organisations. She was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia in 1982, "for service to the community of Australia and humanity at large."^[68] The United Kingdom and the United States each repeatedly granted awards, culminating in the Order of Merit in 1983, and honorary citizenship of the United States received on 16 November 1996. Mother Teresa's Albanian homeland granted her the Golden Honour of the Nation in 1994.^[57] Her acceptance of this and another honour granted by the Haitian government proved controversial. Mother Teresa attracted criticism from a number of people for implicitly giving support to the Duvaliers and to corrupt businessmen such as Charles Keating and Robert Maxwell. In Keating's case she wrote to the judge of his trial asking for clemency to be shown.^[57][69]

Universities in both the West and in India granted her honorary degrees.^[57] Other civilian awards include the Balzan Prize for promoting humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples (1978),^[70] and the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975).^[71]

In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India,^[72] stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family." Building on this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society—that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." She also singled out abortion as 'the greatest destroyer of peace in the world'.^[73]

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was named 18 times in the yearly Gallup's most admired man and woman poll‎ as one of the ten women around the world that Americans admired most, finishing first several times in the 1980s and 1990s.^[74] In 1999, a poll of Americans ranked her first in Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.^[75] In that survey, she out-polled all other volunteered answers by a wide margin, and was in first place in all major demographic categories except the very young.^[75][76]

Criticism[link]

Towards the end of her life, Mother Teresa attracted some negative attention in the Western media. The journalist Christopher Hitchens was one of her most active critics. He was commissioned to co-write and narrate the documentary Hell's Angel about her for the British Channel 4 after Aroup Chatterjee encouraged the making of such a programme, although Chatterjee was unhappy with the "sensationalist approach" of the final product.^[59] Hitchens expanded his criticism in a 1995 book, The Missionary Position.^[77]

Chatterjee writes that while she was alive Mother Teresa and her official biographers refused to collaborate with his own investigations and that she failed to defend herself against critical coverage in the Western press. He gives as examples a report in The Guardian in Britain whose "stringent (and quite detailed) attack on conditions in her orphanages ... [include] charges of gross neglect and physical and emotional abuse",^[78] and another documentary Mother Teresa: Time for Change? broadcast in several European countries.^[59]

The German magazine Stern published a critical article on the first anniversary of Mother Teresa's death. This concerned allegations regarding financial matters and the spending of donations. The medical press has also published criticism of her, arising from very different outlooks and priorities on patients' needs.^[69] Other critics include Tariq Ali of the New Left Review and the Irish investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre.^[77]

She has also been criticized for her view on suffering. She felt that suffering would bring people closer to Jesus.^[79] Sanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International, criticised the failure to give painkillers, writing that in her Homes for the Dying, one could "hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong painkillers are even in hard cases not given. According to Mother Teresa's philosophy, it is 'the most beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ'."^[80]

The quality of care offered to terminally ill patients in the Homes for the Dying has been criticised in the medical press. The Lancet and the British Medical Journal reported the reuse of hypodermic needles, poor living conditions, including the use of cold baths for all patients, and an approach to illness and suffering that precluded the use of many elements of modern medical care, such as systematic diagnosis.^[69] Dr. Robin Fox, editor of The Lancet, described the medical care as "haphazard", as volunteers without medical knowledge had to make decisions about patient care, because of the lack of doctors. He observed that her order did not distinguish between curable and incurable patients, so that people who could otherwise survive would be at risk of dying from infections and lack of treatment. Dr. Fox makes it a point to contrast the term "hospice", on the one hand, with what he calls "Mother Teresa's Care for the Dying" on the other hand; noting that, while hospice emphasizes minimizing suffering with professional medical care and attention to expressed needs and wishes of the patient, her approach does not.^[81]

Colette Livermore, a former Missionary of Charity, describes her reasons for leaving the order in her book Hope Endures: Leaving Mother Teresa, Losing Faith, and Searching for Meaning. Livermore found what she called Mother Teresa's "theology of suffering" to be flawed, despite being a good and courageous person. Though Mother Teresa instructed her followers on the importance of spreading the Gospel through actions rather than theological lessons, Livermore could not reconcile this with some of the practices of the organization. Examples she gives include unnecessarily refusing to help the needy when they approached the nuns at the wrong time according to the prescribed schedule, discouraging nuns from seeking medical training to deal with the illnesses they encountered (with the justification that God empowers the weak and ignorant), and imposition of "unjust" punishments, such as being transferred away from friends. Livermore says that the Missionaries of Charity "infantilized" its nuns by prohibiting the reading of secular books and newspapers, and emphasizing obedience over independent thinking and problem-solving.^[82]

Hitchens and Stern have said Mother Teresa did not focus donated money on alleviating poverty or improving the conditions of her hospices, but on opening new convents and increasing missionary work.^[83] Mother Teresa accepted donations from the autocratic and corrupt Duvalier family in Haiti and openly praised them. She accepted $1.25 million from Charles Keating, involved in the fraud and corruption scheme known as the Keating Five scandal and supported him before and after his arrest. The Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles, Paul Turley, wrote to Mother Teresa asking her to return the donated money to the people Keating had stolen from, one of whom was "a poor carpenter". The donated money was not accounted for, and Turley did not receive a reply.^[84]

Spiritual life[link]

Analyzing her deeds and achievements, John Paul II asked: "Where did Mother Teresa find the strength and perseverance to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart."^[85] Privately, Mother Teresa experienced doubts and struggles over her religious beliefs which lasted nearly 50 years until the end of her life, during which "she felt no presence of God whatsoever", "neither in her heart or in the eucharist" as put by her postulator Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk.^[86] Mother Teresa expressed grave doubts about God's existence and pain over her lack of faith:

Where is my faith? Even deep down ... there is nothing but emptiness and darkness ... If there be God—please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul ... How painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, ... What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true.^[87]

Plaque dedicated to Mother Teresa, Wenceslas Square, Olomouc, Czech Republic.

With reference to the above words, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, her postulator (the official responsible for gathering the evidence for her sanctification) indicated there was a risk that some might misinterpret her meaning, but her faith that God was working through her remained undiminished, and that while she pined for the lost sentiment of closeness with God, she did not question his existence.^[88] and that she may have experienced something similar to what is believed of Jesus Christ when crucified who was heard to say "Eli Eli lama sabachthani?" which is translated to "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Many other saints had similar experiences of spiritual dryness, or what Catholics believe to be spiritual tests ("passive purifications"), such as Mother Teresa's namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux, who called it a "night of nothingness."^[88] Contrary to the mistaken belief by some that the doubts she expressed would be an impediment to canonization, just the opposite is true; it is very consistent with the experience of canonized mystics.^[88]

Mother Teresa described, after ten years of doubt, a short period of renewed faith. At the time of the death of Pope Pius XII in the fall of 1958, praying for him at a requiem mass, she said she had been relieved of "the long darkness: that strange suffering." However, five weeks later, she described returning to her difficulties in believing.^[89]

Mother Teresa wrote many letters to her confessors and superiors over a 66-year period. She had asked that her letters be destroyed, concerned that "people will think more of me—less of Jesus."^[63][90] However, despite this request, the correspondences have been compiled in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday).^[63][91] In one publicly released letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, she wrote, "Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see,—Listen and do not hear—the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me—that I let Him have [a] free hand."

Many news outlets have referred to Mother Teresa's writings as an indication of a "crisis of faith."^[92] Christopher Hitchens wrote: "So, which is the more striking: that the faithful should bravely confront the fact that one of their heroines all but lost her own faith, or that the Church should have gone on deploying, as an icon of favorable publicity, a confused old lady who it knew had for all practical purposes ceased to believe?"^[89] However, others such as Brian Kolodiejchuk, Come Be My Light's editor, draw comparisons to the 16th century mystic St. John of the Cross, who coined the term the "dark night of the soul" to describe a particular stage in the growth of some spiritual masters.^[63] The Vatican has indicated that the letters would not affect her path to sainthood.^[93] In fact, the book is edited by the Rev. Kolodiejchuk, her postulator.^[63]

In his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI mentioned Teresa of Calcutta three times and he also used her life to clarify one of his main points of the encyclical. "In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service."^[94] Mother Teresa specified that "It is only by mental prayer and spiritual reading that we can cultivate the gift of prayer."^[95]

Although there was no direct connection between Mother Teresa's order and the Franciscan orders, she was known as a great admirer of St. Francis of Assisi.^[96] Accordingly, her influence and life show influences of Franciscan spirituality. The Sisters of Charity recite the peace prayer of St. Francis every morning during thanksgiving after Communion and many of the vows and emphasis of her ministry are similar.^[96] St. Francis emphasized poverty, chastity, obedience and submission to Christ. He also devoted much of his own life to service of the poor, especially lepers in the area where he lived.

Miracle and beatification[link]

After Mother Teresa's death in 1997, the Holy See began the process of beatification, the third step toward possible canonization. This process requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa.

In 2002, the Vatican recognized as a miracle the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, after the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa's picture. Besra said that a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumor. Critics—including some of Besra's medical staff and, initially, Besra's husband—insisted that conventional medical treatment had eradicated the tumor.^[97] Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, who told The New York Times he had treated Besra, said that the cyst was not cancer at all but a cyst caused by tuberculosis. He insisted, "It was not a miracle.... She took medicines for nine months to one year."^[98] According to Besra’s husband, “My wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle.”^[99]

An opposing perspective of the claim is that Besra's medical records contain sonograms, prescriptions, and physicians' notes that could prove whether the cure was a miracle or not. Besra has claimed that Sister Betta of the Missionaries of Charity is holding them. The publication has received a "no comments" statement from Sister Betta. The officials at the Balurghat Hospital where Besra was seeking medical treatment have claimed that they are being pressured by the Catholic order to declare the cure a miracle.^[99]

In the process of examining Teresa's suitability for beatification and canonization, the Roman Curia (the Vatican) pored over a great deal of documentation of published and unpublished criticism of her life and work. Vatican officials say Hitchens's allegations have been investigated by the agency charged with such matters, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and they found no obstacle to Mother Teresa's beatification. Because of the attacks she has received, some Catholic writers have called her a sign of contradiction.^[100] The beatification of Mother Teresa took place on 19 October 2003, thereby bestowing on her the title "Blessed."^[101] A second miracle is required for her to proceed to canonization.

Legacy and depictions in popular culture[link]

Commemoration[link]

Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza.

Mother Teresa inspired a variety of commemorations. She has been memorialized through museums, been named patroness of various churches, and had various structures and roads named after her, including Albania's international airport. Mother Teresa Day (Dita e Nënë Terezës) on October 19 is a public holiday in Albania. In 2009 the Memorial House of Mother Teresa was opened in her hometown Skopje, in the Republic of Macedonia.

Mother Teresa Women's University,^[102] Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, has been established in 1984 as a public university by government of Tamil Nadu, India.

Mother Theresa Post Graduate and Research Institute of Health Sciences,^[103] Pondicherry has been established in 1999 by Government of Pondicherry, India.

Various tributes have been published in Indian newspapers and magazines authored by her biographer, Navin Chawla.^{[104][105][106][107][108][109][110]}

Indian Railways introduced a new train, "Mother Express", named after Mother Teresa, on 26 August 2010 to mark her birth centenary.^[111]

Tamil Nadu State government organised centenary celebrations of Mother Teresa on 4 December 2010 in Chennai, headed by Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi.^[112][113]

Film and literature[link]

Mother Teresa is the subject of the 1969 documentary film and 1972 book Something Beautiful for God, a 1997 Art Film Festival award winning film starring Geraldine Chaplin called Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor, a 2003 Italian miniseries titled Mother Teresa of Calcutta, (which was re-released in 2007 and received a CAMIE award,) and was portrayed by Megan Fox in a satirical film-within-a-film in the 2007 movie How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.^[114] Hitchen's 1994 documentary about her, "Hell's Angel", claims that she urged the poor to accept their fate, while the rich are portrayed as being favored by God.^[115][116]

See also[link]

	Saints portal
	Catholicism portal
	Christianity in India portal

• List of female Nobel laureates
• List of female adventurers

Notes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mother Teresa

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mother Teresa

• Mother Teresa of Calcutta Center, India – Official Site
• Missionaries of Charity Brothers (Active Branch)
• Mother Teresa and her patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux
• Mother Teresa Memorial Page
• Mother Teresa Gallery
• Mother Teresa Women`s University, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India – Official site
• Nobel Laureate Biography (Nobel Foundation)
• Complete Mother Teresa Quotations
• The TIME 100: The Most Important People of the Century – Mother Teresa
• Mother Teresa collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Missionaries of Charity Fathers (MC Fathers / MC Priests) – Official Website: Biography of Mother Teresa
• Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith (TIME.com)
• Speech at National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C. 3 February 1994
• Peggy Noonan, "Still, Small Voice," Crisis, 1 February 1998 (account of the National Prayer Breakfast speech)
• Mother Teresa at the Internet Movie Database
• Missionaries of Charity Active and Contemplative Sisters with U.S. contact information (CMSWR member page)
• India to give Mother Teresa state funeral, CNN
• Mother Teresa, Encyclopædia Britannica
• "Mother Teresa, John Paul II, and the Fast-Track Saints" by Michael Parenti, CommonDreams.org, 22 October 2007
• Biography: Mother Teresa
• "The Illusory vs The Real Mother Teresa", by Michael Hakeem, is a review of Christopher Hitchens' The Missionary Position.
• Christopher Hitchens' article: "Mommie Dearest" in Slate, 20 October 2003
• "The squalid truth behind the legacy of Mother Teresa" by Donal MacIntyre in the New Statesman, 22 August 2005
• "Mother Teresa: Where are her millions?", Stern 10 September 1998.
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Mother Teresa at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Mother Teresa in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

v t e Bharat Ratna laureates Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1954) C. Rajagopalachari (1954) C. V. Raman (1954) Bhagwan Das (1955) Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (1955) Jawaharlal Nehru (1955) Govind Ballabh Pant (1957) Dhondo Keshav Karve (1958) Bidhan Chandra Roy (1961) Purushottam Das Tandon (1961) Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1962) Dr. Zakir Hussain (1963) Pandurang Vaman Kane (1963) Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966) Indira Gandhi (1971) V. V. Giri (1975) K. Kamaraj (1976) Mother Teresa (1980) Acharya Vinoba Bhave (1983) Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) M. G. Ramachandran (1988) B. R. Ambedkar (1990) Nelson Mandela (1990) Rajiv Gandhi (1991) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1991) Morarji Desai (1991) Abul Kalam Azad (1992) J. R. D. Tata (1992) Satyajit Ray (1992) A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1997) Gulzarilal Nanda (1997) Aruna Asaf Ali (1997) M. S. Subbulakshmi (1998) Chidambaram Subramaniam (1998) Jayaprakash Narayan (1998) Ravi Shankar (1999) Amartya Sen (1999) Gopinath Bordoloi (1999) Lata Mangeshkar (2001) Bismillah Khan (2001) Bhimsen Joshi (2008)

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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2011)

Teresa Stratas, OC (born May 26, 1938, Toronto, Ontario), is a retired Canadian operatic soprano of Greek descent. She is especially well known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's Lulu.

Early life and career[link]

Stratas was born Anastasia Stratakis to a struggling immigrant Cretan family in Toronto, Ontario. At age 13, she performed Greek pop songs on the radio. She graduated from The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. At age 20, Stratas made her professional opera debut as Mimì in La bohème at the Toronto Opera Festival. One year later in 1959, she co-won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, appearing later that year with the Metropolitan Opera as Poussette in Manon. She created the title role in Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Nausicaa at the Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens in 1961, made her Covent Garden debut as Mimì that same year and in 1962, she made her La Scala debut as Isabella in Manuel de Falla's L'Atlántida. She continued her career with the Metropolitan Opera, moved into leading roles and performed with leading opera houses around the world, including the Bolshoi, Vienna State, Berlin, Bavarian State (Munich), Paris and San Francisco Operas as well as the Salzburg Festival.

Her repertoire also included Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Despina in Così fan tutte, Cherubino and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Liù in Turandot, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Micaëla in Carmen, Marguerite in Faust, the title role in La Périchole, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Lisa in The Queen of Spades, The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, Marenka in The Bartered Bride, Desdemona in Otello, Mme Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, the title roles of Salome and Lulu, Jenny Smith in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (directed by John Dexter) and Marie Antoinette in John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles. She is regarded as one of the foremost singing actresses of the twentieth century.

Career highlights[link]

Among her career highlights was the creation of the role of Sardulla in the US premiere of Menotti's The Last Savage (Met, 1964). In 1974, she made a film (directed by Götz Friedrich) of Strauss' Salome with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Böhm. Pierre Boulez chose her to sing the title role in the first performance of the completed version of Alban Berg's Lulu (Paris, 1979). In 1981 she performed the role of Mimi in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On 26 September 1989, she sang all three soprano roles in Puccini's Trittico, Giorgetta in Il tabarro, Angelica in Suor Angelica and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi (Met). She created the role of Marie Antoinette in the premiere of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles (Met, 1991). At the opening night of the Met's 1994 season, she sang Nedda in Pagliacci opposite Luciano Pavarotti and Giorgetta in Il tabarro opposite Plácido Domingo.

Over the course of her thirty-six year career at the Metropolitan Opera, she appeared in 385 performances of 41 different roles. Her most frequently performed roles at the house include Liu in Turandot (27 performances between 1961 and 1995), Nedda in Pagliacci (27 performances between 1963 and 1994) and Mimì in La bohème (26 performances between 1962 and 1982). Her final performance with the company was on December 9, 1995, as Jenny in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. She was engaged to sing Marenka in a revival of The Bartered Bride during the 1996-97 season, but withdrew from all of the performances prior to opening night, and subsequently never returned to the house again.

While rehearsing for Mahagonny in 1979, Stratas met the originator of her role, Lotte Lenya, who was also Kurt Weill's widow. Lenya gave her the scores of previously unpublished Weill songs which she had hoarded until that time, some of which Stratas later recorded on two albums, The Unknown Kurt Weill and Stratas Sings Weill.

She also starred in several film adaptations of operas, including Salome (1976), Amahl and the Night Visitors (1978), The Bartered Bride (1978), Pagliacci (1982) and La traviata (1983).

In 1988, she recorded the role of Julie laVerne in EMI's 3-CD set of the complete score of Kern and Hammerstein's classic musical Show Boat, conducted by John McGlinn. Also starring with her were Frederica Von Stade as Magnolia, Jerry Hadley as Gaylord Ravenal, and Bruce Hubbard as Joe. This was the first-ever complete recording of the score, using Robert Russell Bennett's original 1927 orchestrations, Will Vodery's vocal arrangements, and all of Oscar Hammerstein II's uncensored lyrics. Critics acclaimed it as the finest recording of Show Boat ever made.

In the 1980s Stratas travelled to Calcutta and worked with Blessed Mother Teresa in an orphanage and at the Kalighat Home for the Dying. In the 1990s she again took time from her career to move into a Romanian hospital to clean cots and wash and care for the sick and dying orphans.

On September 25, 2008, Teresa Stratas returned to New York for an interview with the Metropolitan Opera Guild, her first public appearance in over a decade. She lives in Florida.

Awards and recognition[link]

Stratas' star on Canada's Walk of Fame

• Grammy Awards & Grammy nominations
  • Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording and Grammy Award for Best Classical Album for Alban Berg's Lulu (1981)
  • Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for Verdi's La traviata (1984)
• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress - Musical for Rags (1987)
• Nominee for Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Rags (1987)
• Officer of the Order of Canada (1972)
• Artist of the Year Canadian Music Council (1980)
• Honorary LL D (McMaster University) (1986)
• Honorary LL D (University of Toronto) (1994)
• Honorary LL D (Eastman School of Music) (1998)
• Honorary D LITT (York University) (2000)
• Star in Canada's Walk of Fame (2001)
• MasterWorks recipient for Alban Berg's Lulu (2005)

Discography[link]

• Alban Berg's Lulu Stratas, Yvonne Minton, Hannah Schwarz, Franz Mazura, Kenneth Riegel, Robert Tear, Orchestre de l'Opéra de Paris, cond. Pierre Boulez. Deutsche Grammophon, (1981)
• Teresa Stratas - The Unknown Kurt Weill Nonesuch 79019
• Stratas Sings Weill, Nonesuch 79131
• September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill (1997, Sony Classical)
• Verdi, La traviata. Stratas, Fritz Wunderlich, Hermann Prey. Cond. Giuseppe Patanè. Orfeo, 1965. Live performance.
• Peggy Glanville-Hicks: Nausicaa, Scenes from the Opera. Stratas, Athens Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
• Jerome Kern, Showboat. Stratas, Frederica von Stade, Jerry Hadley & Lillian Gish. Ambrosian Chorus & London Sinfonietta, cond. John McGlinn. EMI.
• Lehár Der Zarewitsch. Stratas, Wiesław Ochman, Paul Esser, Lukas Ammann, Harald Juhnke & Birke Bruck. Symphonie-Orchester Kurt Graunke, cond. Willy Mattes (DVD 1973, Deutsche Grammophon/Unitel Classica 00440 073 4314)

Filmography[link]

• Giuditta (1970) - Stratas, Schock - operetta F. Lehar (movie made in Germany)
• Der Zarewitsch (1973) - Stratas, Ochman - operetta F. Lehar (movie made in Germany) directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt
• Salome (1976) - title role, conducted by Karl Böhm, directed by Götz Friedrich
• The Bartered Bride (1978) - with Nicolai Gedda, and Jon Vickers, directed by John Dexter
• Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1979) - with Astrid Varnay and Richard Cassilly, directed by Dexter
• La bohème (1981) - as Mimì, with José Carreras and Renata Scotto, directed by Franco Zeffirelli
• Pagliacci (1982) - as Nedda, with Domingo, directed by Zeffirelli
• La traviata (1983) - as Violetta, with Domingo and Cornell MacNeil, directed by Zeffirelli
• Stratasphere: Portrait of Teresa Stratas (1989) - documentary
• Così fan tutte . Stratas, Edita Gruberová, Luis Lima, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Delores Ziegler, Vienna Philharmonic, cond. Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Deutsche Grammophon
• The Ghosts of Versailles (1991) - Stratas, Fleming, Horne, Hagegård, G. Quilico, Berberian, Met Opera, cond.James Levine. Directed by Colin Graham

References[link]

• "Teresa Stratas Biography at the American Immigration Law Foundation". Archived from the original on 2006-02-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20060220180339/http://www.ailf.org/notable/iaa/ny2000/stratas.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-27. 
• "Teresa Stratas Biography at Sony Classical". http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/stratas/bio.html. Retrieved 2006-05-27. 

External links[link]

• Teresa Stratas at the Internet Movie Database
• Teresa Stratas at the Internet Broadway Database
• Order of Canada Citation
• AvTrust - video clip of Stratas speaking about her performance of Alban Berg's Lulu
• Biography, Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
• Teresa Stratas in an excerpt from Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1978).
• Teresa Stratas in an aria "Liebe, du Himmel auf Erden" aus "Paganini"
• Canada's Walk of Fame
• Facebook UNOFFICIAL fan page [1]