Mother Teresa

About Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun born in Skopje, was globally recognized for her decades of humanitarian work in Calcutta, India, beginning in the 1940s. As the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, she dedicated her life to caring for the sick, poor, orphaned, and dying, earning her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Her profound, decades-long commitment to social service and global advocacy firmly establishes her historical importance, placing her at #44 in MIT's Historical Popularity Index among approximately 15,000 influential figures.

Despite this high ranking, her modern internet attention shows an Attention Gap of +3x, indicating overattention relative to her historical weight. In 2025, her Wikipedia pages garnered 2.2 million views. This level of attention is robust, though it contrasts sharply with major foundational historical figures. For instance, her view count is significantly lower than that of modern figures like Elon Musk (#273 importance), who recorded 25.2M views, or even an actor like Sylvester Stallone (#143 importance), who accrued 4.6M views, highlighting a modern preference for contemporary celebrities over established humanitarian icons.

This overattention ratio suggests that while she is a well-known figure in the digital sphere, the interest level slightly exceeds what her relative historical ranking might predict, though her annual interest did decline by -10.6% year-over-year, accompanied by a -17% drop in momentum between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, signaling a slight cooling of digital curiosity.