When hundreds of thousands of people flock toward St Peter’s Square on Sunday for the canonisation of Mother Teresa, it will mark the culmination of the great nun’s posthumous honours. Long recognised for her exceptional charity and holiness, Mother Teresa overcame many challenges in life, making her road to sainthood all the more impressive.

Born in 1910 in Macedonia, the youngest daughter of two Albanian parents, she was known as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Though deeply Catholic, she wasn’t certain, at a young age, what God’s intentions were for her. But by 18, inspired by the missionary history of the Church, she joined the Loreto Sisters in Dublin, founded in the 17th century to educate young girls.