Pope Francis hailed Mother Teresa as a “tireless worker of mercy” as he proclaimed her a saint on Sunday.
Despite the formality of the occasion, “her sanctity is so close to us, so tender and fruitful, that spontaneously we will continue to call her ‘Mother Teresa’,” Pope Francis said to applause at the canonisation Mass on Sunday.
“Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded,” the Pope said in his homily during the Mass.
An estimated 120,000 people packed St Peter’s Square, many holding umbrellas or waving fans to keep cool under sweltering heat. But upon hearing Francis “declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a saint”, the crowds could not contain their joy, breaking out in cheers and thunderous applause before he finished speaking.
The moment was especially sweet for more than 300 Albanians who live in Switzerland, that came to Rome for the canonisation. Daughter of Divine Charity Sister Valdete said: “We are so happy and honoured. We are a small people, but have had so many martyrs.”
Born in 1910 to an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, in what is now part of Macedonia, Mother Teresa went to India in 1929 as a Sister of Loreto and became an Indian citizen in 1947. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.
Mother Teresa, Sister Valdete said, was a shining example of how “Albanian women are strong and our people are hardworking.”
Like Mother Teresa, the Pope said in his homily, Christians are called not simply to perform acts of charity, but to live charity as a vocation and “to grow each day in love”. Mother Teresa lived out this vocation to charity through her commitment to defending the unborn and bowing down “before those who were spent left to die on the side of
the road”.
“Today, I pass on this emblematic figure of holiness!” Francis said. “May this tireless worker of mercy help us to increasingly understand that our only criterion for action is gratuitous love, free from every ideology and all obligations, offered freely to everyone without distinction of language, culture, race or religion.”
After the Mass, 300 Missionaries of Charity Sisters and Brothers served pizza to about 1,500 poor people who
had come to the Mass from shelters, dormitories and soup kitchens which the order runs throughout Italy.
Pope Francis, through the office of the papal almoner, had funded the lunch, prepared by a team of 20 pizza chefs.
‘I was overwhelmed to be at this beautiful event’
As I prepared for my journey on Saturday, September 3, I was filled with anticipation, writes Norman Imms. Mother Teresa had played a special role in my life. I had met her after suffering years of severe mental illness. With her help, I was cured.
The journey to Rome via Amsterdam was uneventful and a driver picked me up from Rome airport to take me to my hotel, near the Vatican. It was a muggy night and I was overwhelmed. Due to some physical health problems, I didn’t think I would make the big day.
I rang Sister Prema, Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity. She understood my issues and told me to meet her at Dono di Maria, a house given by St John Paul II to the order.
On Saturday night I dreamt of Mother. She was smiling at me. I offered prayers for my wife, Cathy, who is recovering from illness; Wendy, our sick daughter; and a friend’s daughter who is also ill. Mother then faded out of my mind’s eye.
Sister Prema looked after me on the day of Mother’s canonisation. It was beautiful, thank God. After the great event I had pizza with the homeless people of Rome.
As I returned to County Durham I thanked God and Mary, and of course our dear St Teresa of Calcutta, for her protection and the joy she bestows on all of us.
