Pope Francis on Sunday declared Mother Teresa of Kolkata a Saint of the Catholic Church in front of thousands of pilgrims at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.
"We declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a Saint," the Catholic News Agency quoted the Pope as telling the thousands including many Indians who stood holding the Indian flag.
"For the honour 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," the Pope said.
She was declared saint in the presence of over a lakh of her followers from all over the world.
A 12-member central delegation from India led by External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj and two state government-level delegations from Delhi and West Bengal led by Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee, respectively,attended the function.
Nuns at the Missionaries of Charity, founded by the late Nobel laureate nun, said the canonisation in Rome had a special universal significance because of the Mother’s popularity.
In 2002, the Vatican ruled that an Indian woman's stomach tumour had been miraculously cured after prayers to Mother Teresa.
Pope Francis cleared the way for sainthood last year when he recognised a second miracle attributed to her.
She died in 1997 - aged 87 - and was beatified in 2003, the first step to sainthood. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.
The sisterhood now has 4,500 nuns worldwide.