Five facts about Mother Teresa

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Sunanda K. Chavan
Marking her 100th birth anniversary, Discovery channel explores her life.

1 Mother Teresa left her parents’ home at the age of 18 in September 1918 to pursue her desire to become a missionary.

2 Calcutta’s imposing Victorian architecture tells of a time when it was a royal residence in the British Empire. But beyond that slums were sprawling. This is where Mother Teresa began her work.

3 In the Mother House in the centre of Calcutta, the young nuns were trained for their duties. Two white Saris, one pair of sandals, a prayer book and a rosary -- these were the missionary's only belongings.

4 When Pope Paul the Sixth came to India, Mother Teresa was too busy to meet him. He recognised her work and gave her his car, a white Lincoln. She auctioned it off to raise funds for the poor.

5 She wanted to establish a house for the dying – to give dignity to slum dwellers in their final hours. Then an official from the health authorities took her to Kalighat, a Hindu temple district in Calcutta. She founded a place here. Nirmal Hriday, Place of the Pure Heart, is the name Mother Teresa gave to it.
 
mother Teresa collected leftover food off airplanes when she traveled on them and gave it to the poor and the hungry.

She was also awarded the Nobel peace prize, the money for the banquet she asked to feed the poor, it fed 15000 hungry people.
 
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