“Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer”, he added.
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The ceremony came on the eve of the 19th anniversary of Saint Teresa’s death in Kolkata, where she spent almost four decades working in wretched slums.
“It’s not becoming a saint”.
By historical standards, Saint Teresa has been fast-tracked to sainthood. Bede, a theologian, died in 735 and was canonised only in 1899.
“She saw Christ in every person she met”, said Barres.
“You hear Mother Teresa and it’s somebody who has sacrificed and given their life to the poor and the sick”, says Albert Schadwill.
Around 120,000 people attended the ceremony, according to Vatican estimates, celebrating the life of a woman who Francis said it might be hard to call “Saint” as people felt so close to her they spontaneously used “Mother”.
The path to sainthood in the Catholic Church is usually a long one.
The saint-making process has always been criticized as being expensive, secretive, ripe for abuses and subject to political, financial or theological winds that can push one candidate to sainthood in record time and leave another languishing for centuries.
A medical commission working with the Vatican reviews each case to decide if there is any known medical explanation for the healing. Once this information is sent to the Pope, he will bestow the title Venerable. The next step is beatification. This is the Church making formal recognition that the deceased is in Heaven and is able to intercede with God.
After beatification, the candidate is given the title “blessed”. Among the prerequisites is proof of two miracles approved by the Vatican’s own investigators.
Due to proximity to Mother House, people coming to Islam’s shop asked for keepsakes of Mother Teresa, and he started selling her pictures, which is how the shop gradually became a souvenir shop and Islam became a rosary specialist, something he attributes to God’s grace and the Mother’s blessings.
When Mother was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work with the poor, she requested the $192,000 budget for the traditional honor banquet be given to the poor of India instead.
For the first, Indian woman Monica Bersa said a cancerous tumour in her abdomen had been cured in 1998 after a beam of light had emanated from a picture of Mother Teresa contained in a locket. “Today, I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: May she be your model of holiness”, Francis said.
A Vatican-appointed Miracle Commission typically composed of theologians and scientific experts is in charge of verifying hundreds and thousands of miracle claims.
Miracles can only be confirmed if the healed person prayed exclusively to one person.
But rules about conferring sainthood are not set in stone.
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Pope Francis had been expected to attend the concert – which also featured performances from Albanian singers Ermonela Jaho, Inva Mula and Saimir Pirgu – but he did not appear to be among guests. Others, like Dr. Aroup Chatterjee, have criticized what they call a “cult of suffering” that was prevalent in some of the homes run by the order.
