Pope Francis on Sunday declared world's most revered nun Mother Teresa a Saint holding her as the model for Catholic Church. Francis while declaring sainthood to Mother Teresa said "Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer,"
Even before Francis pronounced the rite of canonization, applause erupted in St.Peter's Square which showed the love and admiration Mother Teresa enjoys from all sections be it Christians and anon Christians all through her life and even after her death in 1997.
Two miracles led to Mother Teresa's sainthood. It is known that In order to be declared a saint, the congregation needs to agree to the candidate having lived a virtuous life and having performed at least two miracles through the intercession of God after her death. Mother Teresa in 1997 cured tumour of Monica Besra, a tribal woman after she visited several doctors and they gave up her case.
On September 5, 1998, as the Missionaries of Charity order was witnessing the first death anniversary of Mother Teresa with prayers in the chapel, Monica Besra felt a beam of light emanating from the photograph of Mother Teresa. In the evening, two sisters of the order tied a medallion with Mother Teresa’s picture around Besra’s waist and prayed over her. That night she slept peacefully after months of painful sleeplessness. When she woke up in the morning, her tumour was gone.
Monica Besra
Pope Francis said in Latin "For the honour of the Blessed Trinity... we declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata) to be a Saint and we enroll her among the Saints+ , decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church,"
Thousands of pilgrims thronged St.Peter's Square and prayed at vigils in area churches so that they can get good sport for the Mass being celebrated. Group of 40 Indian nationals traveled from Macerata, Italy to honor given India's highest civilian and humanitarian awards for her work in the slums of Kolkata.
Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the Canadian priest who spearheaded Mother Teresa's saint-making campaign speaking to scribes said "What she described as the greatest poverty in the world today (of feeling unloved) she herself was living in relationship with Jesus,"
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee said "Let the example of Mother Teresa inspire all of us to dedicate ourselves to the welfare of mankind," Mother Teresa is the fourh Indian citizen to become saint. Teresa born as Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910 came to India in 1929 as a sister of the Loreto order. In 1946, she received what she described as a "call within a call" to found a new order dedicated to caring for the most unloved and unwanted, the "poorest of the poor." Teresa was honored with Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and she passed away in 1997.
In December 2008, Marcilio Haddad Andrino a Brazilian man got cured from multiple abscesses in his brain. He and his wife placed a relic of Mother Teresa near his head and prayed to her regularly.
Marcilio Haddad Andrino
Her critics however attack her for doing little to alleviate the pain of the terminally illl. Atheist writer Hitchens made a documentary about her called "Hell's Angel", and wrote a book.She was even accused of trying to convert the destitute in predominantly-Hindu India to Christianity,
