Rita Ora performs at the Vatican ahead of Mother Teresa’s Canonization

Rita Ora has described her performance at a concert to celebrate Mother Teresa’s canonization as “a moment I cherish forever”.

Rita Ora wowed fans with a powerful performance to celebrate Mother Teresa’s canonization at the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy, on Saturday night (03Sep16).

The 25-year-old delivered a rendition of traditional carol What Child Is This? as she took to the stage inside St. Peter’s Basilica to celebrate Pope Francis declaring the late Albania-born Roman Catholic nun and missionary a saint.

Wearing a black lace dress with a matching veil, Rita didn’t hold back with her performance, and later took to social media to reveal her joy at being invited to join the celebrations.

“I am honoured to have been invited, to fulfill (sic) the role as an ambassador to Kosovo, to sing at the canonisation of Mother Teresa,” she wrote alongside a snap of her singing inside the Basilica. “Singing What Child Is This to celebrate her life and legacy will be a moment I cherish forever.”

Rita, who was born in Kosovo to Albanian parents, was joined by famous Albanian singers such as Ermonela Jaho, Inva Mula and Saimir Pirgu at the festivities.

While Pope Francis had been expected to attend the concert, he did not appear to be among the dignitaries at the event.

However, Rita was joined by her parents Vera and Besnik and sister Elena, and later shared a picture of the clan on Instagram with the caption: “The Ora’s take Rome”.

Pope Francis officially named Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, a saint on Sunday (04Sep16), in front of crowds of people in St. Peter’s Square.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Mother Teresa, who spent part of her life helping the poor in the Indian city of Calcutta, was born in 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia to an Albanian family from Kosovo.

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