On September 4, 2016, Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who dedicated her life to caring for the destitute in India, officially becomes Saint Teresa of Calcutta, almost two decades after her death on September 5, 1997.

Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa of Calcutta a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in front of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City—to much applause.

“Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded… She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity…,” Pope Francis said in his homily that day. “Today, I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: may she be your model of holiness!”  

Source: History.com