Which saint founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950?

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950.

Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, Mother Teresa joined the Sisters of Loreto and worked as a teacher in India. In 1946, she described an experience she called a “call within a call,” which led her to leave the convent school and serve people living in extreme poverty. She received permission to begin this work and later formed a new congregation.

The Missionaries of Charity received official recognition from the Archdiocese of Calcutta in 1950. The congregation’s members serve people who are poor, sick, dying, homeless, or otherwise marginalized. Its first home for the dying, Nirmal Hriday, opened in Calcutta in 1952.

Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016. Calcutta is now officially called Kolkata, but the historical name remains common in accounts of her early work.