After Pope recognized the late missionary’s second miracle, mandatory for her canonization, the Vatican announced that she will be anointed Saint next year
File photo of Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II waving to well-wishers in Kolkata on February 3, 1986. Pic/AFP
Rome/Kolkata: Mother Teresa will be canonised as saint of the Roman Catholic Church next year, the Vatican and the Missionaries of Charity announced on Friday, a day after Pope Francis recognised a second miracle attributed to the Nobel laureate.
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File photo of Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II waving to well-wishers in Kolkata on February 3, 1986. Pic/AFP
“The Holy Father has authorised the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to proclaim the decree concerning the miracle attributed to the intercession of blessed Mother Teresa,” said the Vatican.
Miraculous
“Today (Friday) we received an official confirmation from the Vatican about the second miracle being recognised by the Pope ... and Mother will be accorded sainthood in 2016,” said Sunita Kumar, spokesperson of Missionaries of Charity, which was founded by Mother Teresa.
The second miracle – mandatory for her canonisation – related to the curing of a Brazilian man with a brain illness.
September it is Mother Teresa is likely to be canonised in September next year to coincide with the 19th anniversary of her death and Pope Francis’s Holy Year of Mercy.
Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, aged 87 and was beatified – the first step towards sainthood – in 2003 after Pope John Paul II accepted as authentic a miracle attributed to her.
He judged that the curing of an Indian woman suffering from an abdominal tumour was the result of the supernatural intervention of the late Mother Teresa.
The two miracles
1. In 2002, the healing of Monika Besra, a Bengali tribal woman, suffering from an abdominal tumor was recognized as Mother Teresa’s first miracle by Pope John Paul II. According to Besra, the tumor was cured by a locket containing Mother Teresa’s image. While the doctor treating Besra denied the claim and attributed her cure to medicine the event is still a mystery.
2. The miracle responsible for the canonization concerned the inexplicable cure of a Brazilian man suffering from a viral brain infection that resulted in multiple abscesses. By Dec. 9, 2008, he was in a coma and dying, suffering from an accumulation of fluid around the brain.