The canonisation of Mother Teresa will be formally approved on March 15, the Vatican has announced.
The Albania-born nun, who studied briefly in Rathfarnham, Dublin, when she was 18 before moving to India, and who established a community in west Belfast’s Ballymurphy in 1971, is to be canonised along with four others.
The March 15 consistory will see cardinals and promoters of sainthood causes meeting to approve the canonisations of Argentina’s Blessed Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, the 14-year-old Mexican martyr Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio, Poland’s Blessed Stanislaus Papczynski, and Sweden’s Blessed Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad, a convert from Lutheranism who established a branch of the Bridgettine order.
Mother Teresa’s canonisation has been anticipated since December 17, when Pope Francis approved a second miracle attributed to her intercession. It is expected that the canonisation will take place to coincide with the Jubilee of Workers and Volunteers of Mercy on September 4, a day before the 19th anniversary of Blessed Teresa’s 1997 death.