1979年，诺贝尔委员会从包括促成埃以和谈的美国总统卡特在内的56位候选人中选中了她，将诺贝尔和平奖授予了这位除了爱一无所有的修女。从12岁起，直到87岁去世，她从来不为自己，而只为受苦受难的人活着……她的一生，用她自己的话来说，就是“怀大爱心，做小事情”。

We all have our own heroes, people we admire and respect, people who made an impact on our life, that made us look at the world with a different eye, Mother Teresa is definitely the one for me.

Although the world is full of good people, great humanitarians1 that really care, people who donate2 billions of dollars, people who raise their voice to make a difference, Mother Teresa stands out in the crowd, she is unique.

"It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving."

She dedicated every day of her adult life caring for "The dying, the cripple3, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved". Yes, she fed them, sheltered them, cleaned their wounds, but what is more important she made them feel good, loved, wanted. She gave them back their dignity that poverty had taken away from them and even if they died they died with a smile on their face...

"Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well."

Agreeing or disagreeing with her on abortion, population control, divorce or how she raised the money should not shadow Mother Teresa's lifelong contribution and dedication to the poor and humanity.

"Saint of the gutters"4

Nearly 50 years ago, Mother Teresa found a woman "half eaten by maggots and rats" lying in front of a Calcutta hospital.5 The diminutive6 Roman Catholic nun sat with the woman until she died. Soon after, she began a campaign for a shelter for people to die with dignity. Until her death she made a mission of caring for the human castoffs7 the world wanted to forget.

Accepting the Nobel peace prize in the name of the "unwanted, unloved and uncared for," she wore the same $1 white sari that she had adopted to identify herself with the poor when she founded her order, Missionaries of Charity.8

Her impact was mostly felt in her adopted home, Calcutta, where she directed the Missionaries of Charity for nearly 50 years. But the order's work spread across the globe after 1965, when Pope Paul VI9 authorized its expansion.

She created a global network of homes for the poor, from the hovels of Calcutta to the ghettos of New York, including one of the first homes for AIDS victims.

Misery had a formidable and unrelenting foe in Mother Teresa; Whether it was in Ethiopia10 tending to the hungry or in the squalid11 townships of South Africa, Calcutta's "angel of mercy" was there. In 1982, at the height of the siege in Beirut,12 the frail nun rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas.

Her work was almost always praised. But her funding methods met with some criticism. Mother Teresa's causes were financed by public foundations, private donors and scores of prizes.

A 1994 British television documentary, "Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa of Calcutta," accused her of accepting contributions without questioning the source, including the likes of Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier13.

Mother Teresa had a short response to such allegations: "No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work." she said.

Under Mother Teresa's guidance, the order focused much of its attention on giving comfort to the dying, a task the sisters continue. In an abandoned temple to the Hindu goddess Kali14, Mother Teresa founded the Kalighat15 Home for the Dying. The order established Shanti Nagar (Town of Peace), a leper colony16, in the mid-1950s on land granted from the Indian government.

In India and beyond, Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity devoted their time to the blind, the disabled, the aged, and the poor. She opened schools, orphanages17 and homes for the needy, and turned her attention to the victims of AIDS as that disease increased in prevalence. By 1996, she was operating 517 missions18 in more than 100 countries.

Perhaps, French President Jacques Chirac19 summed up Mother Teresa's legacy best when he said after her death: "This evening, there is less love, less compassion, less light in the world."

1. humanitarian：人道主义者。

2. donate：捐赠，赠予。

3. cripple：伤残的。

4. 贫民窟的圣人。

5. maggot/#m*g2t/: 蛆；Calcutta：加尔各答（印度东北部的港市）。

6. diminutive：小的，小型的。这里指身材小。

7. castoff：被抛弃的人（或物）。

8. sari: 莎丽（指印度妇女用以裹身包头或裹身披肩的整段布或绸）； order：（天主教会等的）修道会；Missionaries of Charity：仁爱传教会。

9. Pope Paul VI：保罗六世（1897-1978），意大利籍教皇［1963-1978］，发表通谕主张教士独身［1967］，反对节制生育［1968］，广泛到各大洲旅行，呼吁开展国际合作，保障世界和平。

10. Ethiopia：埃塞俄比亚(东非国家)。

11. squalid：肮脏的。

12. 在围攻贝鲁特的战斗进行得最激烈的时候(1982年以色列入侵黎巴嫩期间，以军兵临城下，包围贝鲁特长达3个月之久)。Beirut：贝鲁特(黎巴嫩首都，为一海港)。

13.即海地大独裁者让-克劳德·杜瓦利埃(1951- )，海地总统［1971-1986］，继其父Fransois Duvalier任“终身总统”时年仅19岁，当政后虽宣布“逐步民主化”政策，实际仍实行独裁统治，不允许政治反对派存在，1986年被推翻。

14. kali:卡莉 (印度教女神，形象可怖，既能造福生灵，也能毁灭生灵）。

15. Kalighat：为加尔各答一香火鼎盛的寺庙。特蕾莎嬷嬷借其招待香客的一间禅房来收容垂死的游民。

16. leper colony: 麻风病患者聚居地。

17. orphanage：孤儿院。

18. mission:（宗教团体设在城市贫民区的）慈善会堂，救济机构。

19. 法国现任总统雅克·希拉克。