Pope Francis on Sunday declared revered nun Mother Teresa a saint in a canonization mass at St Peter’s square.
Advertisement
Francis held St. Teresa up as a model for today’s Christians during his homily for the nun who cared for the “poorest of the poor”.
Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday, praising her for her service to society’s most unwanted. There, Pope Francis spoke about Mother Teresa’s dedication to helping the poor and for criticizing world leaders for the crimes of poverty they themselves created.
After the Mass, the guests headed to the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, to eat a lunch consisting of Neapolitan-style pizza.
The ceremony came nearly 19 years after Teresa’s death in Kolkata, the Indian city where she spent nearly 40 years tending to the poorest of the poor.
St. Teresa was born Agnes Goinsha to Albanian parents in Skopje, in what was then part of the Ottoman empire and is now Macedonia, on August 26, 1910. The ceremony came a day before the 19th anniversary of Teresa’s death in Kolkata, the Indian city where she spent almost four decades tending to the poorest of the poor.
“I remember her when I was a little girl just being so inspired by the work that she did”, said Mary Konieczny.
In honor of the new saint’s life long mission, organizers bussed in 15 hundred homeless people.
Writer and Calcuttan Ruchir Joshi says it’s not conversions that bother him but Mother Teresa’s failure to use her indisputable clout to go beyond what he calls a self-serving cycle. The “saint of the gutters” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and she died in 1997. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India, stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world’s needy.
Advertisement
Ansari in his message marked the work done by the Missionaries of Charity, established by the Mother in 1950 to serve the sick and the poor of Calcutta (now Kolkata).
