Pope Francis approves sainthood for Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be elevated to sainthood at a ceremony on September 4, Pope Francis announced on Tuesday.

The Pope gave the final approval after clearing the way for the nun, who dedicated her life to helping the poor, to become a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church in December.

The Nobel peace laureate was dubbed the "saint of the gutters" after founding the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in the 1950s to help poor, sick and orphaned people which spread throughout the world.

She became an international figure but was also accused of trying to convert people to Christianity.

Pope Francis was keen to make Mother Teresa a saint during the Roman Catholic church's Holy Year. Credit: Reuters

Francis, who has made concern for the poor a major part of his papacy, was keen to make Mother Teresa a saint during the Catholic church's current Holy Year.

The church defines saints as those believed to have been holy enough during their lives to now be in heaven and can intercede with God to perform miracles.

She has been credited in the church with two miracles, both involving the healing of sick people.

Born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire and is now Macedonia, she died in 1997 at the age of 87.