Rita Ora will "cherish" the moment she performed to celebrate Mother Teresa’s canonisation "forever".
The 25-year-old pop star delivered an incredible rendition of Christmas carol ‘What Child Is This?’ on stage at St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday night (03.09.16) to mark Pope Francis declaring the late Roman Catholic nun and missionary a saint.
Rita was asked to be part of the event because she shares Albanian heritage with Mother Theresa and she took to her Twitter account afterwards to share her joy at being part of the once in a lifetime event.
She tweeted: "I am honoured to have been invited as an ambassador to Kosovo, to sing at the canonization of Mother Theresa … Singing What Child Is This to celebrate her life and legacy will be a moment I cherish forever. (sic)"
Rita was accompanied inside the Vatican City in Rome, Italy, by her sister Elena and their parents Vera and Besnik – who moved from Kosovo to raise their family in London.
The ‘I Will Never Let You Down’ hitmaker posted a photo of her family together on Twitter after she sang with the caption: "The Ora’s take Rome (sic)"
Pope Francis had been expected to attend the concert – which also featured performances from Albanian singers Ermonela Jaho, Inva Mula and Saimir Pirgu – but he did not appear to be among guests.
The concert took place the day before Pope Francis officially named Mother Teresa – who died in September 1997 at the age of 1987 – a saint for her work with the poor in Calcutta, India, and for setting up the Missionaries of Charity.
On Sunday (04.09.16) in front of a huge crowd that had gathered in St. Peter’s Square, he made her a saint, saying: "We declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a saint and we enrol her among the saints, decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church.
"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."
Rita Ora will cherish memories of Mother Teresa’s canonisation
