Mother Teresa , a citizen of Skopje

Mother Teresa-dedicated her life to the cause of humanity. She has done a great work to the poorest of the poor, she was gentle, human and full of energy, apostle of love devoted to the slums of Calcutta, who become a respected and loved citizen of the world. This extraordinary woman was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on 27 of August 1910 in Skopje, now Republic of Macedonia, ( In 1910 Macedonia was part of the Ottoman Impair ). Mother Teresa considered that "poverty is a gift of God" and she believed and served that motto, and her beloved God, all her life.

According to Mother Teresa's Indian Diplomatic passport, She was born on 26 August in Skopje, Macedonia in that time 1948 one of six republics of state Yugoslavia. But, the relatives who still live in Skopje will emphasized that she was born on 26 of August 1910, baptised August 27 in the Roman Catholic Church in Skopje and that day is count as a day of her birth. There is a confusion about hers nationality and about the history of her family. Mother Teresa spent 18 years of her life in Skopje, before she went to Ireland in 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sailing later, to India as a teacher.

She had never wanted to talk about her past, or about her family. Mother Teresa always pointed out "My work that's me". During her last visit to Skopje in 1980 she was often asked if she is Albanian, Macedonian, Vlachk, Serb or some other nationality. She answered typically of her lifestyle - "I feel as a citizen of Skopje, my born city, but I belonged to the world". 

Young Gonxha who's name means "flower bud" with gentle pink color and plump went to a public school in Skopje, but also attended classes at her parish. At that time in Skopje were coming a great number of missionaries whose spoke an interesting stories for India, and that struck the curiosity of young Gonxha to make a firm decision to lave her borne city and to go to a long trip to absolutely unknown, but mystically attractive India. At meetings of the Sodality of Mary in Skopje, the pastor would read letters by missionaries from Yugoslavia ( mostly from Croatia ) who were serving in India. Agnes Gonxha followed the stories they told with ever-increasing interest, an interest which would make a path for her decision to serve as a missionary. Agnes from Skopje, later Teresa of Calcutta has never doubted that the voice of God reached to the very depths of her being.

In 1928 she becomes novitiate in Loretto Order, which ran mission schools in India, and takes name Sister Teresa. In 1929 she began to teach geography at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta and in 1937 she took final vows as a nun. After studying nursing, Mother Teresa moved into the slums. Municipal authorities, upon her petition, gave her the pilgrim hostel near the sacred Kali's temple where she founded her order in 1948. She adopted Indian citizenship, and her Indian nun all donned the sari as their habit, simple one with blue lines, and a cross on the left side of theirs shoulders. In 1950 she officially founded the order Missionaries of Charity receiving canonical sanction from Pope Pius XII, and in 1965 it became a pontifical congregation (subject only to the pope). The Order opened numerous centers serving the blind, aged, lepers, cripples, and the dying. Under Mother Teresa's guidance, the Missionaries of Charity built, near Asnosol, India, a leper colony called Shanti on his trip to India, Pope Paul VI gave her his ceremonial limousine, which she immediately raffled to help finance her leper colony. In 1968 she was summoned to Rome to found a Nagar (Town of Peace).

In 1963 the Indian government awarded Mother Teresa the Pardmashri ("Lord of the Lotus") for her services to the people of India. In 1964, home there, staffed primarily with Indian nuns. In recognition of her apostle, she was honored on January 6, 1971, by Pope Paul, who awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and in 1979 Mother Teresa wins Nobel Peace Prize.                      

In the late 1970s the Missionaries of Charity numbered more than 1,000 nuns who operated 60 centers in Calcutta and more than 200 worldwide centers, including foundations in Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Jordan, Venezuela, Great Britain, Australia, and in her born city Skopje, Macedonia. By 1990, 456 centers were established in more then one hundred countries. During that year 500,000 families were fed, 20,000 slum children were taught in 124 schools, 90,000 leprosy patients were treated and 17,048 "shut-ins" were visited in their homes. Six AIDS shelters admitted 661 patients, of whom eighty-eight died during the year.

Mother Teresa for millions of Catholics and for others as well is already a saint who was devoted to the gutters, living as pious, chaste, ascetic, prayerful, poor, full of love for everyone. She said once:"We cannot make a big things, only small, but with great love". Her life was modest, but the world farewell and funeral in her Calcutta, India was great organized. among the dignitaries throughout the world was Macedonian delegation. The minister of religion Vlado Naumovski, the mayor of her born city Skopje, Risto Penov, and other representatives had a meeting with the mayor of Calcutta talking about possibility of making sister-towns Skopje and Calcutta. The city where she was born and the city to whom she devoted all her life and love. Macedonian authorities and the Council of Skopje are reviewing the possibility as soon as possible to put a plug on a place where she was born in the central area of Skopje, to make a Museum to the person who has worldwide reputation for holiness, as a mark of proud that she was born and grown up in Skopje.