Mother Teresa has been made a Roman Catholic saint in a ceremony in Vatican City on Sunday.
Thousands turned out for the canonisation Mass led by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square, who officially declared Mother Teresa of Calcutta, known as the “saint of the gutters”, to be enrolled among the church’s saints.
Applause broke out after the declaration which comes just 19 years after her death. The Albanian-born nun was famous for her work among the poor of the Indian city of Kolkata (renamed from Calcutta in 2001).
In his homily, Pope Francis commended Mother Teresa for her charitable works.
“Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded,” he said. “She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that ‘the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable’.”
“She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity. She made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognise their guilt for the crime of poverty they created.”
Pope Francis described Mother Teresa’s mission among the poor as “an eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor”.
Following the ceremony, some 1,500 homeless people from across Italy, who had been given special seats at the Mass, were served a pizza lunch by nuns from the Missionaries of Charity which had been founded by Mother Teresa.
