About 120,000 people attended the canonization ceremony in St. Peter’s Square. This was to be the highlight of the Jubilee Year, which Pope Francis had proclaimed would be on the theme of mercy.
Advertisement
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”. Bishop Paul Terrio says because of this, they just had to celebrate her legacy.
Hundreds of Missionaries of Charity sisters in their trademark blue-trimmed saris had front-row seats at the mass, alongside 1500 homeless people and 13 heads of state or government, including Queen Sofia of Spain.
Candles and flowers were laid on Teresa’s tomb at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity.
“I ‘m so proud to be from Kolkata”, said Sanjay Sarkar, a high school pupil on hand for the party.
Rita later took to social media to express her delight at being invited, and revealed that she acted as the ambassador for Kosovo – the very place where Mother Teresa spent her childhood.
The Church defines as saints those believed to have led such holy lives they are now in Heaven and can intercede with God to perform miracles – two of which are needed to confer sainthood. On her death in 1997, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II predicted Teresa would “continue to live on in the hearts of all those who have been touched by her selfless love”.
She was an example to volunteers around the world, he said.
But in his homily at her canonisation mass today, Francis hailed her as beacon for the world. For Mother Teresa, her good deeds have been recognized for her years of service as founder of the Missionaries of Charity sisterhood.
Recognizing all those involved in making the celebration of her sainthood a joyful and prayerful experience, he also said, “We thank the poorest of the poor in whom Jesus is loved and served”.
When the Litany of the Saints was read during the canonization ceremony, it was clear that over the centuries, the church had sainted far more men than women.
Advertisement
Those fears prompted a huge, 3,000-strong law enforcement presence to secure the area around the Vatican and close the airspace above. There has been an eruption of joy in India where she was revered long before the world had heard of this nun from Macedonia who settled down in this country after a moment of epiphany while on a train journey.
