WHO IS THE REAL MOTHER TERESA?

Everyone knows Mother Teresa, who in 1979 won the Nobel Peace Prize. She was born in 1910, became Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 1986 and passed away in 1997. I featured her five years ago and showed these photos:

I talk about her again today because the following photo has gone through a couple of viral cycles purporting to be that of Mother Teresa at the age of 18:

I was attracted to that shot because she reminded me of my wife Pearl at the age of 21:

This is Mother Teresa at the age of 69 when she won the Nobel Prize:

Here, Pearl's final photo when she was 69:

In that posting five years ago I said:

St. Teresa of Kolkata was born in Albania, now the Republic of Macedonia, left for Ireland at the age of 18, and then to India a year later. She took her first religious vows in 1931 at the age of 20 while teaching at St. Teresa's School in Darjeeling. She chose to be named after Therese de Lisieux, the patron saint of Missionaries.

While the above is true, here is where people became confused, for some of the photos said to be that of a more youthful Mother Teresa were really that of Saint Therese de Lisieux (left). As for example (younger Mother Teresa to the right):

The left person is Sister Terese of Lisieux of the 1800's who became Saint Terese:

At the age of three:

And at age eight:

One confusion is that there are two Saint Teresas.

But that is not the full story, for what about the top photo? This 18-year old does not look like either of the Saint Teresas. That is because...

“God’s Gift to you is the Gift of Life. What you do with your Life is your Gift to God.” — Mother Teresa.

Our beloved Mother, Tran Anh Phuong, passed away on April 20, 2008 after a long illness. She was the eldest child of Reverend Te Ngoc Tran and Mrs. Tot Thi Nguyen. She resided in Arlington, VA for the past 33 years.

Our Mother attended Southeast Asia Union College in Singapore, majoring in English. From 1968-1972, while raising a young family, she served as a Vietnamese instructor at Ft. Bliss, TX preparing military officers to serve in Viet Nam. After a 19 year career as Executive Assistant for the Commission on Engineering and Technical System at the National Academy of Sciences, she retired in 1992.

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