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.