Mother Teresa to become a saint

Pope Francis has recognised a second miracle attributed to the late Mother Teresa, clearing the path for the beloved nun to be elevated to sainthood next year, the archbishop of Kolkata said Friday.

The Vatican said Pope Francis approved the decree attributing the second miracle to Teresa of Calcutta, known as the “Saint of the Gutters”, during an audience on Thursday, his 79th birthday.

According to the Catholic magazine America, Pope Francis, who knew her while she was alive, gave final approval for Mother Teresa’s sainthood by signing off on the Brazilian man’s account.

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

Mother Teresa will be made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican announced on Friday morning!

Although no date has been set for the canonization, Italian media speculates it will take place next year on September 5th, the 19th anniversary of her death.

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje in modern-day Macedonia to a Kosovar-Albanian family.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in 1979, and is recognized as a global Catholic icon.

The canonization process started in 1999, when Pope John Paul II chose to waive the five-year cooling-off period usually required after a would-be saint’s death. He approved a first posthumous miracle.

Sunita Kumar, another spokesperson of the organisation, who had a long association with Mother Teresa, said it was a great moment for MC and Kolkata.

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. She lived most of her life in India serving the poor, notably in Kolkata, where she founded and ran the Missionaries of Charity.

“We are very happy to hear about the canonization and we look forward to hearing more details in due course”, she told NBC News. “We are grateful to God”.

Francis has often bypassed the usual norms to declare someone a saint, which means that the church officially declares that someone is in heaven and worthy of veneration as a model of sanctity by the faithful on Earth.

Mother Teresa dedicated her life to helping the poor in India.

She was sometimes criticized for trying to convert people to Christianity and mismanaging a huge donation.