These Images Show the Power of Mother Teresa's Work

  • Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa prays in 1988, during the dedication ceremonies at her 400th worldwide mission to care for the poor in Tijuana, Mexico. The Tijuana mission will shelter the homeless, the terminally ill and unwed mothers.
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  • Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, the future Mother Teresa, at age 18 in Albania.
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  • Mother Teresa rides in an ambulance alongside a group of impoverished people in Calcutta, India, in October 1979.
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  • Mother Teresa smiles with an infant in Calcutta, India, in 1981.
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  • Pope Paul VI awards the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize to Mother Teresa in 1971, for her work among the poor in Calcutta and her founding of an order dedicated working with the poor.
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  • Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, on Oct. 1, 1979.
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  • Queen Elizabeth II and Mother Teresa look at the Insignia of the Honorary Order of Merit, which she just presented to the Lady of Calcutta, at the Rashtrapati Shavar in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 24, 1983.
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  • Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Prof. John Sanness, hands over the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize to Mother Teresa.
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  • First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Mother Teresa at the opening of the Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children in Washington, D.C., on June 19, 1995.
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  • Mother Teresa takes a couple minutes to herself at a prayer hall before going about her daily rounds.
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  • Mother Teresa addresses a group of children during mass at a church.
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  • Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity decorate the tomb of Mother Teresa, who was buried after a state funeral, at Mother House in Calcutta, India, on Sept. 14, 1997.
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  • A group of Indian orphans along with a nun of the Missionaries of Charity offer prayers in front of a portrait of Mother Teresa during prayers to observe the seventh anniversary of her death in Calcutta, Sept. 5, 2004.
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By Mahita Gajanan and Andrew Katz

Mother Teresa will officially become a saint on Sunday, on the eve of the 19th anniversary of her death. The Roman Catholic nun, widely known for her dedication to humanitarian causes with the Missionaries of Charity, spent her life caring for poor and sick people. Photos of Mother Teresa throughout the years show her clad in a blue-trimmed white sari, assisting the sick, orphans, the homeless and others. In 1955, when her charity took in large numbers of abandoned children, Mother Teresa opened the Children’s Home of the Immaculate Heart to safely house them. Her work garnered several awards and recognition, including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.

Here, see Mother Teresa at work throughout her life—and the work that has continued, thanks to her legacy, in the years since her death.

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Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com.

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