Mother Teresa Is Officially Canonized as a Saint by Pope Francis

Mother Teresa, the Albanian-born nun who dedicated her life to working with the poor in India, was named a saint on Sunday by Pope Francis.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a crowd of 120,000 gathered in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to celebrate the canonization of Saint Teresa of Kolkata, as she will now be known.

Pope Francis lauded the Nobel Peace Prize winner as "a generous dispenser of divine mercy" in his homily.

"She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity. She made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created," he said in Latin.

The pontiff continued that the womea who he expected would continue to be known as Mother Teresa set an example to volunteers around the world. "May she be your model of holiness," he said.

The L.A. Times reports the enormous crowd included Queen Sofia of Spain, hundreds of nuns from the sisterhood started by Saint Teresa, Missionaries of Charity, their trademark blue-trimmed saris and 1,500 homeless who were treated to a pizza lunch at the Vatican after the ceremony.

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