Scottish Catholic Observer

The ceremony, held in St Peter’s Square. saw pilgrims turn out in tens of thousands to celebrate the occasion of St Teresa of Calcutta’s canonisation, despite blistering heat.

As well as the many pilgrims gathered there, hundreds of Missionaries of Charity sisters, with their distinctive white, blue-striped saris attended, as well as 13 heads of state and around 1,500 homeless people from across Italy, who in the spirit of Mother Teresa’s devotion to caring for the sick and poor, were brought by bus to Rome to be given seats at the ceremony and given pizza for lunch afterwards.

Pope Francis described her a defender of the abandoned, sick and unborn, saying in his homily that she was a light in the darkness for those in need.

Aptly, her canonisation has taken place during the Holy Year of Mercy, with some describing the new saint as being a face of the Year of Mercy.

The Albanian saint devoted her life to caring for and protecting the sick, poor, dying and unborn, founding an Order called the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India, that runs 19 homes for religious sisters.

She also won the Nobel Peace Prize and achieving worldwide acclaim during her lifetime for her missionary work in the slums of Kolkata.

Since her death, two cures have been attributed to her: one of an Indian woman’s miraculous cure of a tumour in her stomach, the second the cure of a Brazilian man who had multiple brain tumours.

Despite the path to sainthood often taking many years, the beatification processed was sped up by St Pope John Paul II.

In India, TV screens were set up at Mother House in Kolkata, where Mother Teresa founded her Order in order to let the missionaries to see the ceremony at the Vatican, with a special Mass also being celebrated.

PIC – Mother Teresa in Glasgow in 1982.