Mother Teresa: ‘One of the Greatest’

A fierce defender of the unborn, Mother Teresa of Calcutta is now a saint of the Catholic Church, as declared by Pope Francis on Sunday before scores of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

“For the honor of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, after due deliberation and frequent prayer for divine assistance, and having sought the counsel of many of our brother Bishops, we declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a Saint,” Pope Francis said on Sunday, Sept. 4. Those in attendance roared with applause.

Related: Mother Teresa Never Gave Up on Life

“We enroll her among the Saints, decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Both Catholics and non-Catholics alike have looked forward to this event since the nun’s death in 1997. “Her canonization is significant not only because it took place during the Jubilee of Mercy, but also because it fell during a special Sept. 2-4 Jubilee celebration for workers and volunteers of mercy, of whom Mother Teresa is widely considered one of the greatest of our time,” noted Catholic News Agency.

Here are other details of her life, as the publication also noted:

After she left her convent, Mother Teresa began working in the slums.

She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu Aug. 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, the youngest of three children. She attended a youth group run by a Jesuit priest called Sodality — which eventually opened her to the call of service as a missionary nun. She joined the Sisters of Loretto at age 17 and was sent to Calcutta, where she taught at a high school. After contracting tuberculosis, she was sent to rest in Darjeeling. On the way there, she felt what she called “an order” from God to leave the convent and live among the poor.

The Vatican granted her permission to leave the Sisters of Loretto and to live her new call under the guidance of the Archbishop of Calcutta.

After she left her convent, Mother Teresa began working in the slums, teaching poor children, and treating the sick in their homes. A year later, some of her former students joined her, and together they took in men, women and children who were dying in the gutters along the streets. In 1950, the Missionaries of Charity were born as a congregation of the Diocese of Calcutta.

Related: Mother Teresa: The Newest Saint

In 1952, the government granted them a house from which to continue their mission of serving Calcutta’s poor and forgotten.