Did you
know that Mother Teresa (real name: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxihu) was born and
baptized in Skopje, Macedonia, where Elder Richard is staying? Agnes lived in
her hometown from 1910 to 1928. Most years, she would go with her family on a
pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine of the Black Madonna on a nearby mountain
(center picture below). By the age of 12 she determined she would be a nun. In
1928, while praying at the shrine of the Black Madonna, Agnes made her final
decision to give her life to God.
She left
Skopje at age 18 to learn English and join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland;
she never again saw her mother and sister. The next year she went to India.
It is a
6 minute walk from where Richard lives to the Memorial House of Mother Teresa
(where she was baptized) in Skopje.
