Women in the Catholic Church
Mother Teresa of Calcutta established the Missionaries of Charity in the slums of Calcutta in 1948 to work among "the poorest of the poor". Initially founding a school, she then gathered other sisters who "rescued new-born babies abandoned on rubbish heaps; they sought out the sick; they took in lepers, the unemployed, and the mentally ill". Teresa achieved fame in the 1960s and began to establish convents around the world. By the time of her death in 1997, the religious institute she founded had more than 450 centres in over 100 countries.
Catalina de Balmaseda y San Martín
Catalina de Balmaseda y San Martín or Sister Catalina de Cristo (1543-1594) was a Carmelite nun and associate of Teresa of Ávila. She was born in Madrigal de las Altas Torres in Spain in 1543. She came from the nobility, but her parents did not teach her to read as they felt that would keep her innocent and away from heresy. This ultimately became an impediment to her as a nun and the order taught her reading before she became a prioress. She was the prioress in Barcelona when she died in 1594. Her body is said to be incorrupt.