PREFACE
Writing about Mother Teresa can be both a frustrating and challenging
exercise. On the surface, she appears almost one-dimensional, living a
simple life devoted to her calling and her faith. Closer inspection, how-
ever, reveals a personality so rife with contradictions that it is difficult to
explain her motives and purposes. What is the reality? What finally can a
biographer conclude about the life of Mother Teresa?
In many ways, Mother Teresa defies the biographer’s art. Her life is not
interesting. There are, or seem to be, no great adventures, no great crises,
no great sorrows, no great turning points. Most biographies of her are so
reverential and so one-dimensional, that it is easy to forget that she was a
human being and did not from birth belong to the ages. Even a list of her
numerous accomplishments and awards does little to capture her inner
life. She did not appear to suffer from the terrible internal conflicts, hard-
ships, or adversities that often mark a great and memorable life. Rather,
her life was mundane and ordinary, and she never pretended it to be oth-
erwise. Perhaps, though, her very ordinariness provides a starting point for
the biographer. How did this unexceptional woman captivate and console
so many that she has come to take her place among the monumental per-
sonalities of the age?
Mother Teresa, however, was something of an artful dodger. When
asked about most any topic, but especially herself, she uttered platitudes
and pieties that sounded almost meaningless. She concealed herself be-
hind them. Yet, coming from her, these expressions had a ring of truth.
That may be because the story of Mother Teresa is not the story of a great
life in the modern sense. Mother Teresa was not a celebrity. On the con-