Pope Francis set the canonization date Tuesday, paving the way for the nun who cared for the poorest of the poor to become the centerpiece of his yearlong focus on the Catholic Church’s merciful side. The announcement was expected after Francis in December approved a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa’s intercession — the final hurdle to make her a saint.
Mother Teresa died in 1997.
The Catholic Church requires two miracles or sainthood. Mother Teresa’s first miracle, curing a woman’s brain tumor, was recognized by Pope John Paul II in 2003. Pope Francis in December 2015 officially recognized the healing of brain abscesses in a Brazilian man as her second miracle.
Biography.com notes that she was born on Aug. 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. She taught in India for 17 years before deciding to work with the poor in 1946. She founded the Order of Missionaries of Charity, an all-female congregation dedicated to helping the poor.
Mother Teresa taught in India for 17 years before she experienced her 1946 “call within a call” to devote herself to caring for the sick and poor.