'A moment I will cherish forever': Rita Ora is the unlikely star at a Basilica concert to celebrate Mother Teresa being made a saint by Pope Francis
- Rita Ora sang at a concert in honour of Mother Teresa in Vatican last night ahead of the nun's canonisation
- Ora, 25, performed What Child Is This the night before Mother Teresa was proclaimed a saint by the Pope
- At least 100,000 pilgrims and tourists gathered in St Peter's Basilica to watch the canonisation today
- Ora, who is from Kosovo, was chosen to sing because Mother Teresa was herself born in Kosovan territory
Rita Ora sang at a concert in honour of Mother Teresa last night ahead of the nun being proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis.
Ora, 25, performed What Child Is This at a concert celebrating the life of Teresa, who was canonised today.
Pope Francis was set to attend the event at the Papal Basilica of St Paul, however he did not appear to be among the hundreds of priests and dignitaries inside the venue.
'Singing What Child Is This to celebrate her life and legacy will be a moment I cherish forever,' Ora tweeted before she sang.
Ora, who is from Kosovo but moved to Britain as a refugee, was chosen to sing because Mother Teresa was herself born in Kosovan territory.
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Rita Ora sang at a concert in honour of Mother Teresa last night ahead of the nun being proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis
Singer Rita Ora, 25, performed What Child Is This at a concert (left) celebrating the life of Teresa, who was canonised today. She is pictured, right, at the MTV Video Music Awards last week
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Pope Francis was set to attend the event at the Papal Basilica of St Paul, however he did not appear to be among the hundreds of priests and dignitaries inside the venue
Mother Teresa has been proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis (pictured leading the morning Mass) in front of 100,000 Catholics this morning
Mother Teresa, the tiny nun who cared for the world's most unwanted and became the icon of the Catholic Church, was canonised at a ceremony in St Peter's Square
Speaking before she sang, Ora said: 'Tonight on the eve of the canonisation of Mother Teresa, we, the daughters and sons by blood and soul, are here to honour and express our gratitude to her outstanding life and work dedicated to the poorest people of the world.
'A humble woman managed to united all mankind without any discrimination, based only on the power of faith and love.
'The concert and your presence shows it better than anything else. Our concert is a journey, an itineray, an expression of gratitde through music
'This can be summarised by one quote of Mother Teresa herself: "It is only love that will save the world".'
Ora was born in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, but came to Britain as a refugee as a child.
Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, which is now the capital of Macedonia, but was then a Kosovan district of the Ottoman Empire. She was born to a Kosovar-Albanian family and later became an Indian citizen.
Ora revealed that she was to perform for the Pope to Jimmy Fallon on late night American chat show last week.
'I looked at the guest list and I saw P.O.P.E….Pope?!' she told Fallon.
'It's a real honour and I don't know if anyone's done the whole Vatican venue thing before, it's a bit interesting that the Vatican's someone's venue but it's going to be fantastic.'
Ora's gig came the night before Mother Teresa was proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis in front of 100,000 Catholics at a ceremony in St Peter's Square.
Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he leaves after a Holy Mass and the canonisation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
A vast crowd congregated in St Peter's Square for the ceremony this morning which saw Mother Teresa canonised
St Peter's Square was packed with thousands of Catholics and curious tourists as Pope Francis made Mother Teresa a saint
Tens of thousands of Catholics gathered in the Vatican as they made their way to St Peter's Square for the canonisation
'For the honour of the Blessed Trinity... we declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a Saint and we enroll her among the Saints, decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church,' the pontiff said in Latin.
Speaking from the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, Francis said Mother Teresa spent her life 'bowing 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 the world, so that they might recognise their guilt for the crimes of poverty they themselves created.'
He added: 'Mother Teresa loved to say, 'perhaps I don't speak their language but I can smile'.
The Pope is pictured arriving at Mother Teresa's canonisation
'Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer.'
Applause erupted in St Peter's Square even before Francis finished pronouncing the rite of canonisation at the start of Mass, evidence of the admiration Mother Teresa enjoyed from Christians and non-Christians alike.
For the Pope, Mother Teresa put into action his ideal for the church to be a merciful 'field hospital' for the poorest of the poor, those suffering both material and spiritual poverty.
Yesterday he praised the care Mother Teresa had for the poor and the sick, while taking a swipe at world leaders for their 'sin of indifference' to suffering today.
'Tomorrow, we'll have the joy of seeing Mother Teresa proclaimed a saint,' he said. 'She deserves it!'
The pontiff decried those who 'turn the other way not to see the many forms of poverty that begs out for mercy'.
Choosing 'to not see hunger, disease, exploited persons, this is a grave sin. It's also a modern sin, a sin of today,' he told the gathered thousands.
Later today the Pope will feed 1,500 homeless people with free pizza.
Mother Teresa died in 1997 and was beatified - the first step towards becoming a saint - in 2003, after her first cure - of a woman with an ovarian tumour - was recognised by the Church.
Pope John Paul wanted to declare her a saint immediately, bypassing the beatification process, but was dissuaded by cardinals.
Her second 'miraculous cure' - of a man supposedly healed of a brain infection - was recognised last year, leading to her canonisation.
Throughout last night, pilgrims prayed at vigils and flocked before dawn to the Vatican under heavy security to try to get a good spot for the morning Mass.
Priests filmed Pope Francis, second from left, on their phones as he arrived at the canonisation ceremony in the Vatican
A vast tapestry depicting Mother Teresa - who is now a saint - was unfurled in the facade of Saint Peter's Basilica
Pope Francis was accompanied by fellow Catholic priests as he arrived at the canonisation ceremony this morning
On a sweltering day in the Vatican, Pope Francis needed help changing garments in St Peter's Square after the canonisation
Pope Francis is mobbed by a mixture of catholic pilgrims and tourists as he blesses a bay by touching its forehead
Pope Francis waves to the adoring faithful in St Peter's Square as parents hold out their babies for the pontiff to bless
THE SAINT'S FIRST 'MIRACLE': HOW MOTHER TERESA 'CURED' A WOMAN'S TUMOUR
Indian woman Monica Besra claims Mother Teresa healed her ovarian cancer tumour
Mother Teresa canonisation comes after she is said to have 'miraculously cured' two sick followers of the Catholic Church.
The first came in eastern India, where Monica Besra vividly recalls the 'blinding light' emanating from Mother Teresa's photo that she believes helped cure her ovarian cancer.
Besra, a tribal woman from West Bengal, became an overnight sensation in September 1998 when she claimed that a picture and a medallion of the world's most famous Roman Catholic nun had cured her ovarian tumour.
On September 5, 1998 - exactly a year after Mother Teresa's death - nuns placed a tiny aluminium medallion that had been blessed by the future Saint Teresa of Calcutta on Besra's stomach and prayed for her.
'Two sisters carried me to the church since I was too weak to stand or walk by myself,' the 50-year-old said.
'As soon as I entered (the church), a blinding, divine light emitted from Mother's photo and enveloped me. I closed my eyes, I couldn't understand what was happening. It was indescribable, I felt faint.'
'I got up from my bed feeling so light and good. I looked down to see the giant lump had disappeared. I couldn't believe it. I touched that part, poked it, pinched it. It was really gone. I wasn't dreaming it,' said Besra, who still wears the medallion around her neck.
The next day she was proclaimed cured, a feat hailed by the Vatican as a miracle leading to Mother Teresa's beatification - a crucial step on the path to sainthood - that took place in October 2003 in Rome.
Besra claimed that a picture and a medallion of the world's most famous Roman Catholic nun had cured her ovarian tumour
'Everything she did gave an example to the entire world,' said 17-year-old student Massimiliano D'Aniello, from Grosseto, Italy, who will watch the ceremony today.
'She showed we can't all do everything, but little gestures made with so much love are what's important,' she added.
Pramod Sharma, a resident of Calcutta - now called Kolkata - who grew up near a convent school and childcare centre where Mother Teresa worked, said she had chosen India as her home.
'(She) belonged to our India and stayed with the Indians and will forever stay in our hearts,' Ms Sharma said.
'I think most of all we are thankful to her for the message, for really changing our lives with her example, humility, being close to the poorest of the poor,' said Simone Massara as he prayed with his wife at a vigil at the Basilica of Sant'Andrea della Valle before the Mass.
Mother Teresa was born to ethnic Albanian parents in what is now Macedonia in 1910.
Deeply religious, she became a nun at the age of 16, joining the Loreto abbey in Ireland. Two years later she was given the name Sister Teresa.
In early 1929 she moved to Calcutta, where she became a teacher and, 15 years on, headmistress at a convent school.
In 1946 she received 'a call within a call' to found the Missionaries of Charity, officially established as a religious congregation in 1950. Nuns of the order began calling her Mother Teresa.
In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for the world's destitute. 'I am unworthy,' she said.
On September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa died of a heart attack at her order's headquarters in Calcutta. An array of world dignitaries attended her funeral.
THE SAINT'S SECOND 'MIRACLE': HOW MOTHER TERESA 'CURED' A BRAIN INFECTION
Mother Teresa's second supposed miracle saw a Brazilian man claim she healed him of a viral brain infection.
Marcilio Haddad Andrino was due to have brain surgery but doctors could not intubate him, leaving him in crippling pain.
His wife, Fermanda Nascimento Rocha, said she and her family began praying for Mother Teresa's intercession after receiving a relic of her in September 2008.
Marcilio Haddad Andrino, pictured with his wife, Fernanda Nascimento Rocha, was said to have been cured of a brain infection after Mother Teresa's intercession
Andrino and his wife were special guests at today's ceremony in the Vatican, where 100,000 Catholics gathered
By December of that year, despite powerful antibiotics, the brain abscesses and fluid had built up so much that Andrino was suffering debilitating headaches.
'I asked Mother to cure Marcilio if this is God's will, and if not, to take him by the hand and bring him to the house of the Father to feel his caress,' Mrs Rocha said
She said she went to her mother's home and prayed 'with all the strength I had'.
When the surgeon returned to Andrino's room, he was awake, pain-free and asymptomatic, according to the priest spearheading Mother Teresa's sainthood cause, the Reverend Brian Kolodiejchuk.
Within six months, Andrino said Friday, he had returned to work. Soon after, the couple conceived the first of their two children, though Andrino had been told that the powerful drugs he had taken had made him infertile.
He calls his two children 'the extension of that miracle'.
'We are very grateful to Mother Teresa for our family,' he said.
Pope Francis decreed Andrino's cure a miracle in December after Vatican doctors and theologians determined that it was medically inexplicable and due to the intercession of Mother Teresa.
The streets were filled with pilgrims, tourists and curious onlookers as the Vatican was filled with people gathering for the canonisation of Mother Teresa
Faithful and pilgrims wait to enter St Peter's Square at the Vatican before Mother Teresa's canonization ceremony
Thousands of pilgrims flocked before dawn to the Vatican under heavy security to try to get a good spot for the morning Mass
Irma Escuero, from New York, holds a statue of Mother Teresa before the start of a mass presided over by Pope Francis
At least 100,000 pilgrims and tourists were expected at the ticketed ceremony, as well as dozens of heads of state
The relics of Mother Teresa are carried by nuns prior to the start of the tiny nun's canonisation ceremony in St Peter's Square
A man holds up an Indian flag in the Vatican this morning. In Calcutta, where Mother Teresa spent a lifetime dedicated to the poor, a special Sunday Mass was held in her honour
Since her death, the Vatican has ruled that two people were miraculously cured by Mother Teresa.
A year after her death, nuns placed an aluminium medallion blessed by Mother Teresa on an Indian woman who had a tumour caused by ovarian cancer.
The sick woman, Monica Besra, claimed a bright light suddenly burst from the necklace and she was instantly cured.
'A blinding, divine light emitted from Mother's photo and enveloped me. I closed my eyes, I couldn't understand what was happening. It was indescribable, I felt faint,' she said.
'I got up from my bed feeling so light and good. I looked down to see the giant lump had disappeared. I couldn't believe it. I touched that part, poked it, pinched it. It was really gone. I wasn't dreaming it,' she added.
The supposed cure was recognised by the Vatican in 2002 and led to Mother Teresa's beatification.
Another cure, recognised by Pope Francis last year, is said to have seen Mother Teresa heal a Brazilian man's brain tumour.
Marcilio Haddad Andrino and his wife, Fermanda Nascimento Rocha, said they received a relic of the nun's in 2008, after he contracted a viral brain infection.
'I asked Mother to cure Marcilio if this is God's will, and if not, to take him by the hand and bring him to the house of the Father to feel his caress,' Mrs Rocha said.
She said she went to her mother's home and prayed 'with all the strength I had'. Later that day, Mr Andrino was healed.
Nuns from the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, watch a live broadcast of the canonisation of Mother Teresa a
There was a huge security operation in the Vatican this morning as the throngs of people made their way to the ceremony
A priest kisses the relics of Mother Teresa prior her canonization ceremony in St Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday
A nun of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity kisses Pope Francis in the Vatican yesterday as he met pilgrims
Critics say she did little to alleviate the pain of the terminally ill and nothing to tackle the root causes of poverty. Atheist writer Christopher Hitchens made a documentary about her called 'Hell's Angel'.
She was also accused of trying to convert the destitute in predominantly-Hindu India to Christianity, a charge her mission has repeatedly denied.
Sunday's festivities honoring Mother Teresa were not limited to Rome and the Vatican.
In Calcutta, where Mother Teresa spent a lifetime dedicated to the poor, a special Sunday Mass was held at the order's Mother House.
Volunteers and admirers converged on Mother House to watch the canonization ceremony, which was being broadcast on giant TV screens in Calcutta and elsewhere.
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