Mother Teresa's sainthood greenlighted
March 15, 2016
Pope Francis and cardinals set September 4 as the date of the canonization ceremony after holding a meeting in the Vatican Tuesday.
In December the pope approved a decision to attribute a second miracle - a precondition of canonization - to Mother Teresa for intervening to heal deadly illnesses. The process still reportedly needs a Mass to be formalized.
The Vatican did not say where the religious service would take place, with suggestions it would be in Rome with a thanksgiving ceremony held later in Kolkata, the Indian city where Teresa lived and is buried.
September 4 is the eve of Teresa's feast day, marking the anniversary of her death, on September 5, 1997, at the age of 87.
The Albanian nun won the 1979 Nobel peace prize for her work with the poor.
She was also criticized as a fervent opponent of birth control and abortion.
Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 following a fast-track process involving the recognition of a claim she had posthumously inspired the 1998 healing of a critically-ill Bengali tribal woman.
In 2015 Vatican experts said she had inspired the 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man suffering from multiple brain tumors. This met the Church's standard requirement for sainthood of having been involved in two certifiable miracles.
In the Catholic Church, saints are model Christians who live in paradise after they die and are able to make miracles happen by summoning God's intervention when prayers are addressed to them.