Mother Teresa’s Skopje: the back story

About Mother Teresa’s Skopje: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Skopje Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Skopje is the birthplace of one of the most famous women of the 20th century. Mother Teresa was born here, baptised here and spent her childhood here before leaving at 18 to become a nun.

A Skopje childhood

Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born in Skopje on 26 August 1910 into a family of the city’s Catholic community. She was baptised the next day in the Sacred Heart church, which stood near today’s Memorial House, and grew up close to the centre.

The calling

As a girl she sang in the church choir and was inspired by missionaries’ stories. In 1928, at 18, she left Skopje for Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto, and soon afterwards sailed for India.

She left Skopje at 18 and never forgot it.

Calcutta

In 1950 she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta (Kolkata) to care for the poorest of the poor. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, died in 1997 and was canonised as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 2016.

The Memorial House

The Memorial House of Mother Teresa on Makedonija street opened in 2009. It holds personal belongings, photographs and documents, and a small, modern chapel upstairs. A plaque nearby marks the site of the house where she was born.

Our advice: visit the Memorial House early in the day, when it is quiet, and take a moment in the chapel. It is on the pedestrian street a few minutes from Macedonia Square, so it fits easily into a walk through the centre.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Mother Teresa’s Skopje: the back story before you go.