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Last December, he
cleared the way for sainthood for the Nobel peace laureate, who
died in 1997 at the age of 87 and was known as "saint of the
gutters".
Teresa, who was born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents
in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire and is now
Macedonia, became an international figure but was also accused
of trying to convert people to Christianity.
Francis, who has made concern for the poor a major plank of his
papacy, was keen to make Mother Teresa a saint during the
Church's current Holy Year.
She founded the Missionaries of Charity with about a dozen nuns
in the 1950s to help the poor on the streets of Calcutta, now
known as Kolkata. The religious order spread throughout the
world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
The Church defines saints as those believed to have been holy
enough during their lives to now be in Heaven and can intercede
with God to perform miracles. She has been credited in the
church with two miracles, both involving the healing of sick
people.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; editing by Ralph Boulton; Editing
by Ralph Boulton)
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