The Founding of the Missionaries of Charity: Mother Teresa's 1950 Journey from a Calcutta Slum to a Global Mission.

The Founding of the Missionaries of Charity: Mother Teresa's 1950 Journey to Serve the Poorest of the Poor

On October 7, 1950, a day that would resonate through the decades, Mother Teresa received the official decree from the Vatican, formally establishing the Missionaries of Charity within the Archdiocese of Calcutta. This moment was the culmination of a profound spiritual journey that began years earlier, transforming a single nun's divine calling into a global force for compassion. The congregation, starting with a small group of twelve sisters, was founded with a radical mission: to offer "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor" . From its humble origins in the slums of Calcutta, the order would grow to span the globe, becoming a testament to one woman's unwavering faith and its power to mobilize humanity toward love in action.

The Founder: From Anjezë to Mother Teresa

To understand the establishment of the Missionaries of Charity, one must first understand the woman behind it. Born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje (now the capital of North Macedonia), she was baptized Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu . From a devout Catholic family, her father's sudden death when she was eight left her family in financial strain but fortified by her mother's deep faith and charity toward the local poor.

At the age of twelve, Gonxhe first felt a calling to religious life, and by eighteen, she had decided to become a missionary . In 1928, she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland, where she received the name Sister Mary Teresa, after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. She never saw her mother or sister again. By early 1929, she had arrived in India, where she completed her novitiate in Darjeeling and made her first religious vows in May 1931. She was then assigned to teach at St. Mary's High School, a girls' school run by the Loreto Sisters in Calcutta .

For nearly two decades, she was known as Mother Teresa, a dedicated teacher and, eventually, principal . However, the poverty and suffering she witnessed outside the convent walls—magnified by the Bengal famine of 1943 and the horrific Hindu-Muslim violence of 1946—left a deep and lasting impression on her .

The "Call Within a Call": A Divine Summons

The pivotal moment in Mother Teresa's life, and the direct precursor to the founding of her order, occurred on September 10, 1946. She was traveling by train to her annual retreat in Darjeeling when she experienced what she would later describe as a "call within a call".

In the quiet of that train journey, she felt a clear and insistent message from Jesus: she was to leave the security of the Loreto convent and go out into the slums to serve the very poorest, living among them . She later recounted, "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith". This day would forever after be celebrated by the Missionaries of Charity as "Inspiration Day" .

Upon returning to Calcutta, she confided in her spiritual director, Jesuit Father Celeste Van Exem, about her profound experience . After much prayer and scrutiny, he and the Archbishop of Calcutta, Ferdinand Périer, granted her permission to pursue this new path. In August 1948, after receiving final permission from the Vatican, Mother Teresa left the Loreto convent for the last time. She exchanged her traditional Loreto habit for a simple, white cotton sari with a blue border—a garment that would become the iconic habit of her future order .

The First Steps in the Slums

Alone and without resources, Mother Teresa began her work in the slums of Calcutta. She first acquired basic medical training with the American Medical Mission Sisters in Patna . Returning to Calcutta, she found lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor and began venturing into the city's most impoverished areas .

Her initial efforts were humble. She started by gathering children from the streets and teaching them in the open air, using the muddy ground as her blackboard . She visited families, nursing the sick and caring for the forgotten. In her diary from this period, she revealed the immense difficulties she faced—doubt, loneliness, and the temptation to return to the comfort of her former life. She wrote of begging for food and supplies, and of her resolve to follow God's will despite the hardship .

Soon, her former students began to join her. The first was Subhasini Das, who would become Sister Agnes, Mother Teresa's first postulant . By early 1949, a small community had formed, lodging in a sparsely furnished room on Creek Lane provided by a Bengali Catholic family, the Gomes. As donations began to trickle in, the work expanded, and Mother Teresa began drafting the rules for a new religious order .

The Official Founding: October 7, 1950

After two years of preparation and with a growing community of twelve women, the foundation was formally laid. On October 7, 1950, Archbishop Périer formally established the Missionaries of Charity as a diocesan congregation . The Vatican's official approval, granted by Pope Pius XII, elevated the group from an informal gathering to a recognized religious institute of the Catholic Church .

The founding group consisted of Mother Teresa and eleven other pioneering women who were willing to embrace a life of extreme poverty and service . The congregation was unique for its fourth vow, which members added to the traditional vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. This additional vow was a pledge to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor". Their mission was to care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society" .

Early Growth and Defining Works

The years immediately following the official founding were a period of rapid growth and the establishment of the order's most defining works. In 1952, Mother Teresa opened her first hospice for the dying, Nirmal Hriday ("Home for the Pure of Heart") . The Calcutta government gave her an abandoned building adjacent to the sacred Kalighat temple, a space where those found dying on the streets could be brought to experience care and dignity in their final hours. Here, the sisters ensured that individuals—whether Hindu, Muslim, or Christian—could die in accordance with their own faith traditions .

In 1953, the sisters moved their central headquarters to a three-story building on 54A Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road, which became, and remains, the Mother House, the global heart of the order . Other critical foundations followed swiftly:

Shishu Bhavan: A home for abandoned children and orphans, providing shelter, education, and hope for the youngest and most vulnerable .

A Leprosy Colony: Recognizing the profound stigma faced by leprosy patients, the order established Shanti Nagar ("Town of Peace"), a self-sufficient colony where those with the disease could live, work, and receive treatment with dignity.

The sisters' way of life was one of radical simplicity. They owned very few personal possessions: typically three saris (one to wear, one to wash, one to mend), a pair of sandals, a crucifix, and a rosary. They lived in poverty, relying entirely on donations and begging for their own needs and the needs of those they served, embodying the complete reliance on Divine Providence .

 A Global Expansion

The order's reputation for self-sacrifice and love began to attract international attention. In 1965, Pope Paul VI granted the Missionaries of Charity the status of a pontifical right, placing it directly under the authority of the Pope and permitting it to expand outside India . The first house outside India was established that same year in Cocorote, Venezuela. This was quickly followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania in 1968 .

The order's family also grew to include different branches, each with a specific focus, all united by Mother Teresa's charism. As she described it, they were like "five branches growing from the one vine, Jesus" :

Missionaries of Charity Brothers (Active): Founded in 1963 by Brother Andrew (Ian Travers-Ballan) alongside Mother Teresa .

Contemplative Sisters: Added in 1976 to balance the active work with a life of prayer and penance .

Contemplative Brothers: Established in 1979 .

Missionaries of Charity Fathers: Founded in 1984 by Mother Teresa with Fr. Joseph Langford, combining the order's mission with the ministerial priesthood.

International recognition soared, particularly after Malcolm Muggeridge's 1969 documentary and 1971 book, Something Beautiful for God . Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her untiring work. By the time of her death on September 5, 1997, the Missionaries of Charity had grown to nearly 4,000 sisters running 610 missions in 123 countries. As of 2023, the order consisted of 5,750 members serving in 139 countries across 760 homes.

Legacy and Scrutiny

The legacy of the October 7, 1950, founding is immense. The Missionaries of Charity have provided comfort, care, and dignity to countless individuals worldwide, from the dying in Kolkata to the homeless in New York, and to victims of epidemics and natural disasters everywhere . Mother Teresa was canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.

However, the order has also faced scrutiny and criticism. Some have questioned the medical care in their homes for the dying, noting a focus on spiritual comfort rather than curative treatment and a reported reluctance to use strong painkillers. Others have criticized their staunch adherence to Catholic teachings against abortion and contraception. These critiques form a complex part of the order's history, highlighting the challenges of operating within different cultural and medical frameworks while staying true to a specific religious charism.

The establishment of the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 was far more than the bureaucratic founding of a religious institute. It was the institutional birth of a radical vision of love in action, a vision that continues to challenge and inspire the world to see the face of the divine in the "distressing disguise of the poor."

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