This order and its members were particularly committed to education in Bengali and Indian. Her first post was not in India but in Ireland at the Central office of the Loreto Order. She left Skopje on the 28th of September 1928 for Ireland. After only two months she was allowed to follow her dream and she joined the Loreto Order in Bengal. She took her first vow in Calcutta. She spent the following 17 years in St. Mary's School in Calcutta. Working initially as a teacher, she was later promoted to governor.

It was on one of her numerous journeys through the huge city of Calcutta in 1946 that she felt God's calling to help the poor. She was granted permission to leave the Order two years later. Teresa left the Order but was allowed to keep her status as a nun (exclaustration). Teresa made the decision to live among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Following the publication of the now-famous portrait of Teresa in LIFE magazine she became known as the "Saint of the Gutters".

In 1949 she was given Indian nationality and founded the "Missionaries of Charity" order in 1950. The members of the order had to take a vow of celibacy and pledge an oath of allegiance to the poor. The order was later recognized by the Pope and placed under his control. Teresa and her order focused mainly on the dieing, the ill and on orphans. She was especially interested in looking after lepers. More than 3,000 nuns and 500 monks in over 100 countries belong to this order today. She received many awards for her selfless work, the most important of which was the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 [to the Nobel Prize speech].

Many of Theresa's workers lacked sufficient medical training. Mother Teresa replied to this by saying: "It is not success, but the dedication to one's faith that is important". Receiving worldwide tribute for her work, she was also criticized for her conservative views. She viewed the abortion policies of many countries, for example, as the largest threat to world peace. Shortly before the Irish were due to vote on whether divorce should be legalized, she urged the Irish to vote no.

Mother Teresa died a few days after the death of Princess Diana, for whose death she had been very sorry, on 5th of September 1997. She was buried in Calcutta before the gaze of the world's public.

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