Saint Hubertu Both her parents were born in Skopje was all St Hubert Pendant that Pina Markovska, a relative of Agnes, would say about the ongoing dispute over whether she was a Macedonian or Albanian. But to the millions of her admirers it matters little as to which nationality she belonged to. Actually, Saint Hubertu and neighboring Albania did not even exist when Agnes was born. However, at present, Saint Hubertu She had an elder brother and a sister whom she was attached to in childhood, besides her mother. When Agnes was seven years old (1917), her father Nikola died, leaving the family in dire financial straits. Agnes was looked after by the parish of the Saint Hubertu, a denomination of the Catholic Church. She was so influenced by the religious atmosphere of the Parish that at an early age of twelve she decided that she wanted to be a nun. At the age of fourteen, she heard about the Irish Order of the Sisters of Loreto. She went to Ireland in 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary but soon after decided to come to India to join the Sisters of Loreto. What inspired her to come to India is not recorded but she must have learnt that the Sisters of Loreto were working in India. She reached India on 61anuary 1929. She was eighteen at the time, a short (four feet ten inches tall) frail little girl. After her arrival she was sent to Darjeeling to teach in the Loreto Convent. Before coming to India she had learnt English; and had acquired a smattering of Bengali. She started with teaching history and geography to junior students. On 24 May 1931, she took her vows as a nun and changed her name to Teresa, borrowing the name from a French nun, Therese Martin. To avoid confusion, she changed the spelling to its Spanish version ‘Teresa’.
From Darjeeling, Teresa was sent to Loreto School for girls (Entally) in Calcutta, again as a history and geography teacher. From there she was sent to teach at St, Mary’s at Calcutta and in due course she became the headmistress of the school. She worked in this school for sixteen years. During these years she learnt to speak, read and write Bengali. From her room’s window at St. Mary’s School she could see the vast expanse of the slum of Moti Jheel area where thousands of Calcutta’s poor lived without proper sanitation and medical facilities. She was troubled to see these unfortunate members of humanity. Later on, during a train ride from Darjeeling to Calcutta, where she had gone on an annual retreat, “she went through a spiritual discernment, which made her realize that her calling was to serve the poorest of the poor”. On 16 August 1946, Teresa left for Patna to get training as a nurse under Mother Denger; the medical nun who had started the Order to heal the sick There Teresa decided that shewould launch her own Order which would be Called Missionary Sisters of Charity. An ‘Order’ in Christian parlance is a body or society of persons living by common consent under the same religious, moral and social regulation. A person joining the religious Order is ‘ordained’. She discarded her black and white attire of a Christian nun and started wearing a white sari with blue border; head covered with a tiny white cap and on her left shoulder dangled a small black crucifix. Every Sister of Charity now wears this dress and can be identified by this simple yet unique attire.
