Once Mother Teresa was asked about the biggest honor ever bestowed upon her. Everybody expected her answer to be the Noble Prize, but she replied that the title of 'Mother' was the biggest honor she had ever received. So true!
Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born in Albania as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. At the age of 18, Agnes attended the religious order called 'Our Lady of Loreto' in Ireland. In 1931, Mother Teresa took the name of Teresa from the French nun Thérèse Martin, who was canonized in 1927 with the title St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In 1937, Mother Teresa took her vows. She taught for 20 years in Saint Mary's High School in Calcutta, India.

Touched by the utter poverty and misery in India, she decided to devote her whole for the welfare of the poor and finally became a citizen of India in 1948. Mother Teresa established a congregation called the Missionaries of Charity.

She began her work in India by teaching the children of the streets how to read. In 1950, Mother Teresa began to also care for lepers. In 1965, Pope Paul VI put the Missionaries of Charity under his protection and gave Mother Teresa permission to expand her Order to other countries.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 over her own objections, but she accepted it on behalf of the "poorest of the poor". In August 1997, she departed to the divine abode.

Mother Teresa's Wisdom: Her Favorite Sayings

• I do, because I must do something.
• People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway.
• The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
• Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
• What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
• Give the world the best you've have and you'll be kicked in the teeth. Give the best you've got anyway.
• Calcutta can be found all over the world if you have eyes to see.
• In the developed countries there is a poverty of intimacy, a poverty of spirit, of loneliness, of lack of love. There is no greater sickness in the world today than that one.
• When you have nothing, then you have everything.
• God loves a cheerful giver. She or he gives best who gives with a smile.
• It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.
• Never lose heart. We always -- thank God...can smile. At least you can smile if nothing else.
• Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.