Pope Francis celebrated his 86th birthday on Saturday by rewarding three people for his charitable works, including a homeless man who gives part of the alms he receives to other street dwellers.
The Pope awarded the three the Mother Teresa Award in recognition of their charity. The nun, who died in 1997, worked among the poorest in India and founded the Missionaries of Charity
The Vatican only identified the homeless man by his first name, Gian Piero, and nicknamed him on the street, Wué.
The other two recipients were Franciscan priest Hanna Jallouf, a Syrian working in his country, and Italian industrialist Silvano Pedrollo, for his work in building schools and providing clean water to poor people in developing countries.
Francis presented them with the prize, a small globe of the world in a cube-shaped frame with an image of Mother Teresa holding a child, at a ceremony in the Vatican.
At the ceremony, the pope kissed the homeless man’s hand and one of the nuns from the order founded by Mother Teresa put a garland of flowers around the pope’s neck.
In another audience, the seminarians in Rome presented him with a cake. No other special celebration was planned.
Francisco was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires in 1936. Next March will be ten years since his election as head of the Roman Catholic Church, which has 1.3 billion followers.