Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa of Calcutta a Saint on Sunday morning, stressing her commitment to the poorest of the poor, especially unborn children threatened by abortion.
“Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy,” the Pope said in his homily before the more than 100,000 people overflowing Saint Peter’s Square, “making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defense of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded.”
“She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that ‘the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable,’” Francis added.
Calling Mother Teresa an “emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life,” the Pope held her up as a “model of holiness” for today’s generation.
In the canonization ceremony, the Pope pronounced the official liturgical formula of sainthood.
“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 at the beginning of Mass, prompting thunderous applause from the large congregation.
On the facade of Saint Peter’s Basilica hung a huge tapestry with a portrait of Mother Teresa, one of the modern world’s most recognizable faces.
The Albanian nun founded the order of the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 with 12 followers in Calcutta, India. Once the fastest growing order in the Catholic Church, the Missionaries now run hospices, homeless shelters, institutes for the care of AIDS victims and other services for the poorest of the poor in 139 countries.