Pope Francis made the official declaration during a canonization mass held at the Vatican, where thousands of fans gathered to praise the late nun for her huge charity work.
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The model of holiness, as referred to by Pope Francis, dedicated her life to serving the poor – she’s praised for two miracles of curing the ill.
He said that by canonizing her, Francis is recognizing that Mother Teresa not only shared the material poverty of the poor but the spiritual poverty of those who feel “unloved, unwanted, uncared for”.
Speaking in Latin, he declared “blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata) to be a Saint… decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church”. He then repeated: “The crimes of poverty they themselves created”.
Pope Francis is following in the footsteps of Mother Teresa by offering some 1,500 homeless people a pizza lunch at the Vatican after her canonization Mass.
Mother Teresa is remembered for her charitable work, primarily with the poor in Calcutta.
He said: “Mother Teresa belonged to Kolkata and she has been declared a saint”.
In an interview with VOA’s Mariama Diallo, Tukiçi said hearing that Mother Teresa was going to be a saint was a very special moment for him.
Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu grew up in what is now the Macedonian capital, Skopje, but was then part of the Ottoman Empire.
“Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defense of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded”, he said.
Pope Francis presided over the canonization mass at St. Peter’s square, which started at 10:30 am local time (8:30 am GMT).
But Joanna Jaworowski predicted “it will definitely take time and repetition” for the world to abandon the maternal title that has always been assigned to Teresa.
Throughout the course of her life, she received a Nobel Peace Prize, an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In India, thousands of Sister of Charity volunteers distributed food to the poor in Catholic parishes across the country.
She died September 5, 1997, and was beatified just six years later by St. John Paul II on October 19, 2003.
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“I am honoured to have been invited, to fulfill (sic) the role as an ambassador to Kosovo, to sing at the canonisation of Mother Teresa”, she wrote alongside a snap of her singing inside the Basilica.
