For Mother Teresa, sainthood next as 2nd miracle affirmed

The Vatican later attributed the cure to the fervent prayers to Mother Teresa’s intercession by the man’s wife, who at the time of his scheduled surgery was at her parish church praying alongside her pastor.

For people who might not understand, beneath the Catholic Church, the announcement of sainthood is determined by the performance of two wonders.

Catholic nuns from the order of the Missionaries of Charity gather under a picture of Mother Teresa during the tenth anniversary of her death in Kolkata, in this September 5, 2007. In 2002, the Vatican officially recognised a miracle she was said to have carried out after her death, namely the 1998 healing of a Bengali tribal woman, Monika Besra, who was suffering from an abdominal tumour.

In addition to celebrating his 79th birthday on December 17, the Pope also issued a formal decree crediting the late Mother Teresa with performing the second miracle necessary for her to become a Catholic saint.

In this case, a Brazilian man with multiple brain tumors was healed after loved ones prayed to Mother Teresa to heal him, Avvenire reported.

Again, no medical explanation for his recovery could be determined by the Vatican, and the situation was declared a miracle.

Mother Teresa, the nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor in India, has formally been given her second miracle by Pope Francis, thereby paving the way for her to turn into a st nearly two decades after her departure.

Born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, in 1910, she commenced serving the poor with the Sisters of Loreto in 1928 and arrived in India in 1929.

“The first one (miracle) was in Kolkata many years ago”. She died at the age of 87 in Kolkata in 1997.

But then proselytism has been associated from the early days with Christianity as much as with many other religions, and Mother Teresa was hardly its inventor. She was the foundress of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity and the Missionaries of Charity.

Known as the “Saint of the Gutters”, the late missionary was celebrated for her work among the poor and sick. “We are very excited and happy about it”, Missionaries of Charity Spokesperson Sunita Kumar told PTI on Friday. In death, they are making her a saint. Her supporters justified the funding, saying it did not matter where the money came from as long as it was used to help the poor.

Her critics, however, accused her of peddling a hardline Catholicism, mixing with dictators and accepting funds from them for her charity.