KOLKATA: In 2002, Monica Besra of Balurghat in South Dinajpur district of West Bengal visited the Missionaries of Charity here as she was suffering from abdominal tumour. She got a locket with a photograph of Mother Teresa. Besra later claimed that a beam of light emanated from the locket and cured her of the malignant tumour. The Vatican on Friday recognised it as a miracle which entitled Mother Teresa to sainthood. Mother Teresa had also performed a miracle on a Brazilian man.
The Vatican, according to Catholic daily Avvenire in Rome, announced that Mother Teresa would be canonised on September 4 next year.
“The first miracle was in Kolkata many years ago. Now, there is a case in Brazil where a man has been healed miraculously as a result of her earlier prayers,” said Sunita Kumar, Missionaries of Charity spokesperson.
The Nobel laureate, who died in 1997 at the age of 87, was beatified in 2003 by late Pope John Paul.
Beatification, which requires one miracle, is the last step before sainthood.
After Mother Teresa, Sister Nirmala took over the mantle. Sister Nirmala died in June 2015.
First instance
Pope John Paul II had in 2002 recognized Mother Teresa’s first miracle that involved the healing of a tribal woman from West Bengal’s South Dinajpur district who was suffering from abdominal tumour.