Mother Teresa of Calcutta to be made a saint in September

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor, will be made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church at a ceremony on September 4th, Pope Francis announced on Tuesday.

Last December, the pope cleared the way for sainthood for the Nobel peace laureate, who died in 1997 at the age of 87.

Teresa, who was born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire and is now Macedonia, became an international figure, but one who was also accused of trying to convert people to Christianity.

Pope Francis, who has made concern for the poor a major plank of his papacy, was keen to make Mother Teresa a saint during the Church’s current Holy Year.

She founded the Missionaries of Charity with about a dozen nuns in the 1950s to help the poor on the streets of Calcutta. The religious order spread throughout the world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

The church defines saints as those believed to have been holy enough during their lives to now be in heaven and can intercede with God to perform miracles. Mother Teresa has been credited in the church with two miracles, both involving the healing of sick people.

The date of Teresa’s canonisation falls on the eve of the 19th anniversary of her death.

Reuters/PA