Pope declares Mother Teresa a saint and model of mercy

Pope declares Mother Teresa a saint and model of mercy

Pope Francis passes in front a portrait of Mother Teresa as he is driven through the crowd at the end of a canonization ceremony in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, Sept. 4,

2016. Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday, praising the tiny nun for having taken in society’s most unwanted and for having shamed world leaders for the “crimes of poverty they themselves created.” (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday, praising the tiny nun for having taken in society’s most unwanted and for having shamed world leaders for the “crimes of poverty they themselves created.”

Applause erupted in St. Peter’s Square even before Francis finished pronouncing the rite of canonization, evidence of the admiration Mother Teresa enjoyed from Christians and non-Christians alike during her life and after her 1997 death.