Historical figures: Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun who believed God called her to work with the poor and dying in Calcutta. Calcutta is now known as Kolkata.

She was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, North Macedonia - a country to the east of Albania and to the north of Greece. She was called Gonxha Agnes at the time.

It is believed that she decided she wanted to become a missionary in India as early as the age of 12.

In September 1928, aged 18, she left home and started her mission. She joined the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ireland. Here she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St Thérèse of Lisieux.

In December 1928, she left Ireland to travel to India, arriving in Calcutta in January 1929 to teach in a girls' school.

From 1937 onwards she became known as Mother Teresa.

A train ride on 10 September 1946 changed her life forever. Here she received her "inspiration" to carry out what she described as the work of God, devoting herself to helping people who lived in the slums of Kolkata.

On 17 August 1948, she stepped out for the first time in her white and blue sari, for which she became widely recognised by.

In 1950, she founded an organisation called the Missionaries of Charity. This was a sisterhood dedicated to helping the poor.

It expanded internationally and to this day has around 4,500 nuns and 400 brothers across 87 countries, looking after the poor and sick in the slums of around 160 cities across the world.

Mother Teresa's work with the poor continued for decades.

She won numerous awards for her charity work. The most notable being the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Upon receiving the prize, she said she was "happy to receive it in the name of the hungry, the naked and the homeless."

She asked that the celebration dinner organised to mark her winning the award be cancelled, and for all the money to be given to the poor people of Kolkata instead.

Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 at the age of 87 and was given a state funeral in India.

Her legacy has faced criticism in some circles for her opposition to contraception and abortion.

But she is widely remembered as a selfless person who wanted to help those less fortunate than herself.

With special authorisation from Pope John Paul II, the process to declare Mother Teresa a Catholic saint began less than two years after her death.

She was beatified on the 19th October 2003, and then canonised at a ceremony in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on 4th September 2006.