Mother Teresa was a nun in a religious order in the Catholic Church. Nuns do not marry, they commit themselves to the single life and to a lifetime of service to God in the Church. Mother Teresa originally joined the Sisters of Loreto, and took vows in 1937. The vows Mother Teresa took were vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Poverty means that she would have no possessions of her own, but only possessions in community; chastity means choosing the single life and forfeiting the ordinary activities of married life. Obedience means obedience to the Word of God as revealed in the teachings of the Church and in the directions of superiors.