Nun to Saint: Mother Teresa Timeline  

Landmark events in the life of Mother Teresa who was declared a saint by Pope Francis at the Vatican on Sunday:

* 1910: Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, present-day Macedonia, on August 26; Baptised on August 27

* 1922-1923: At age 12, feels first call to religious life

* 1928: Leaves home on Sep 25 to become a Roman Catholic Loreto nun and begins novitiate training in Dublin. Takes the name Sister Teresa

* 1929: Arrives in Kolkata, becomes a teacher at St Mary’s School

* 1931: Takes her first vows as a nun

* 1937: Takes final vows as a nun, becomes known as Mother Teresa

* 1946: On a train to Darjeeling on Sep 10, receives “the call within the call” to serve the poor

* 1948: Starts teaching poor children, opens her first slum school; Shifts to 14, Creek Lane

* 1950: Founds the Missionaries of Charity on Oct 7 with 12 sisters after getting the green signal from the Vatican

* 1951: Receives Indian Citizenship

* 1952: Opens first home for dying at Kalighat in South Kolkata. Names it Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart)

* 1953: Leaves Creek Lane and shifts to a two-storeyed building on Lower Circular Road; it’s now called Mother House, the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity

* 1957: Begins her work with lepers for which her Order becomes well known around the world

* 1962: Receives Padma Shri from the President for her humanitarian work

* 1963: Founds Missionaries of Charity, Brothers

* 1965: Catholic Church grants permission for setting up missions outside India; the first opens that year in Venezuela

* 1971: Receives Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and uses money to build a leper colony

* 1976: Founds Missionaries of Charity, Contemplative Sisters

* 1979: Receives Nobel Peace Prize for work with the destitute and dying

* 1980: Conferred India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna

* 1982: Rescues 37 mentally disabled children from a hospital in besieged Beirut

* 1983: Visits Pope John Paul II. Hospitalized with heart attack, first of several

* 1984: Founds Missionaries of Charity Fathers

* 1985: Awarded Medal of Freedom, highest US civilian honour

* 1990: Resigns as superior general of the Missionaries of Charity but is re-elected

* 1997: Steps down as head of her order

* 1997: Dies of heart failure in Kolkata on Sep 5, aged 87

* 2003: Beatified by Pope John Paul II -- placing her a step from sainthood

* 2016: Declared a saint by Pope Francis on Sep 4

--IANS