President Obama will speak at the funeral mass for Senator Ted Kennedy on Saturday in Boston.

The president has no plans to attend any of the events in Boston or Hyannis before Saturday and will not attend Kennedy’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

The White House said Mr. Obama will likely return to Martha’s Vineyard after the funeral in Boston. He is scheduled to end his vacation on Sunday.

Earlier today, President Obama praised Sen. Ted Kennedy as “one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy” and called the response to his passing “a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives.”

“Over the past several years, I’ve had the honor to call Teddy a colleague, a counselor and a friend,” Mr. Obama said from the Blue Heron Farm on Martha’s Vineyard. “And even though we have known this day was coming for some time now, we awaited it with no small amount of dread.”

“His extraordinary life on this Earth has come to an end.  An extraordinary good that he did lives on,” the president said .