Pope approves miracle for Mother Teresa’s canonization

According to a Vatican statement, Francis on December 18 authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to proclaim the decree concerning the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Mother Teresa. By Dec. 9, 2008, he was in a coma and dying, suffering from an accumulation of fluid around the brain.

She founded the Missionaries of Charity to help the poor on the streets of Kolkata and the religious order later spread throughout the world.

In the Vatican’s Jubilee calendar, September 4 is already marked as a day dedicated to the late nun’s memory and her canonisation is likely to take place then, experts say.

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

“Born in Macedonia in 1910 when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire, Mother Teresa died in 1997 at the age of 87”.

Francis created six new saints in 2014 – two Indians and four Italians – praising their “creative” commitment to helping the poor.

Francis recounted that he had met Mother Teresa when they attended a 1994 bishop synod at the Vatican. She was born in what is now the the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, and she lived most of her life in India, where she died and was buried.

“We are all absolutely delighted about the news”, Sister Ita of the Missionaries of Charity told NBC News from its headquarters in the center of the city. “And they never curse, never complain”.

“We are so happy with the news”. Mother Teresa viewed suffering as ennobling, and critics argue she did not do enough to relieve patients’ pain.

She was beatified in 2003, the first step toward becoming a saint. She was criticized for taking donations from Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and disgraced American financier Charles Keating.

During the beatification process, the Vatican called on Hitchens to play the ancient role of “devil’s advocate” and present arguments against her being blessed. Detractors opposed her stance against birth-control use in Calcutta’s slums, which was nevertheless in keeping with church teaching opposing artificial birth control.