Mother Teresa to be declared saint today

Mother Teresa will be declared a saint by Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church in a canonisation ceremony in Vatican City on Sunday.

From India, a 12-member central delegation led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and two state government-level delegations from Delhi and West Bengal, led by Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee, respectively, will be in attendance during the function.

A group of around 40-50 nuns from different parts of the country will be present at the ceremony led by Missionaries of Charity Superior General Sister Mary Prema.

Besides Archbishop of Kolkata Thomas D'Souza, about 45 bishops from all over India are now in Vatican.

Earlier in March, Pope Francis had announced that Mother Teresa would be made a saint in a canonisation ceremony on September 4 on the eve of her 19th death anniversary.

Teresa worked with the poor in Kolkata for nearly four decades, having initially come to eastern India as a missionary teacher with Ireland's Loreto order.

Born to Kosovar Albanian parents in what is now Macedonia in 1910, Teresa died in 1997. By then she was a household name around the world and also a citizen of India.