Speaking before a vast crowd, Pope John Paul beatified Mother Teresa of Calcutta this morning, putting the 'Saint of the Gutters' on a fast track to sainthood for her life of selfless help to the poor.
'With our apostolic authority, we grant that the venerable servant of God Teresa of Calcutta shall from now on be called blessed,' declared the pontiff, a longtime friend of the nun who died in 1997 at the age of 87.
Applause and cheering broke out in the crowd of more than 300,000 and a large tapestry showing a smiling Mother Teresa was unveiled from a balcony of Christendom's largest church.
The crowd packed St Peter's Square and filled the broad Via della Conciliazione leading from the Vatican to the River Tiber.
The Albanian nun, who won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, tended the sick and dying of Calcutta's slums for decades with the Missionaries of Charity order she founded.
Many of her nuns in their blue-trimmed white saris stood out in the vast crowd, where a special section for thousands of Rome's homeless and downtrodden was reserved close to the elevated altar where the pope said the beatification Mass.
