Pope Francis before a mammoth crowd of over 100,000 canonized Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, bestowing the Catholic Church’s highest honor on one of the most widely admired public figures in recent history.
“We declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a saint and we enroll her among the saints, decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole church,” the pope said in a ceremony at the start of Mass, provoking applause from the congregation gathered under sunny skies.
Behind him, on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica, hung a banner-sized portrait of Mother Teresa, one of the late 20th century’s most recognizable faces even beyond the ranks of Catholics.
Born to an ethnic Albanian family in what is now Macedonia, the diminutive Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 with 12 followers in Kolkata, India. The order now runs hospices, homeless shelters and other services for the destitute in 139 countries.
Pope Francis highlighted the new saint’s outspoken opposition to abortion. “She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that ‘the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the vulnerable,’” the pope said.
But he also recalled that “she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created.”
The pope thus highlighted two aspects of Mother Teresa’s wide appeal among Catholics, uniting those focused on challenging the mores of modern secular culture and those who emphasize questions of social and economic justice.
Mother Teresa was regarded as a saint by many even when she was alive. She won many worldly accolades, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Only 18 months after her death in 1997, St. John Paul II cut short the usual five-year waiting period to start the canonization process. He beatified her, bestowing the church’s highest honor short of sainthood, in 2003.
Her proclamation as a saint occurred one day before the 19th anniversary of her death. That anniversary, Sept. 5, will now be her feast day in the calendar of the Catholic Church around the world.
Mother Teresa’s canonization was witnessed by many dignitaries including Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Queen Sofía of Spain
