Born August 26, 1910, in Skopje (now in Macedonia), she was the daughter of an Albanian grocer and his wife.

As a student, she developed an interest in overseas missions and, by age 12, realised that her vocation was serving the poor.

At age 18, she left home to educate girls at the Loreto Sisters of Dublin, which had a mission in Kolkata (then Calcutta). Members of the congregation came to know her as a "very small, quiet and shy" girl.

Her words: Abortion "is murder in the womb...A child is a gift of God. If you do not want him, give him to me."