VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican says Pope Francis has signed off on the miracle needed to make Mother Teresa a saint, giving the nun who cared for the poorest of the poor one of the Catholic Church's highest honors just two decades after her death.
It said Friday that Francis approved a decree attributing a miracle to Mother Teresa's intercession during an audience Thursday, his 79th birthday.
No date was set for the canonization, but Italian media have speculated that the ceremony will take place in the first week of September -- to coincide with the anniversary of her death, and during Francis' Holy Year of Mercy.
Mother Teresa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, died on Sept. 5, 1997, at 87.
