VATICAN CITY, Dec. 18 (UPI) — Pope Francis has recognized a second miracle performed by Mother Teresa, paving the way for her canonization as a saint possibly as early as next September.
The pontiff approved a decree Thursday which detailed the healing of a Brazilian man who prayed for Mother Teresa’s intercession in 2008 and was cured of a brain tumor.
Albanian-born Mother Teresa dedicated her life to caring for the poor in India and received the 1979 Nobel Peace prize before her death in 1997 at 87. She was beatified in 2003 in acknowledgement by the church of a prior miracle. Pope John Paul II judged the healing of an Indian woman who recovered from an abdominal tumor a miracle in 2003.
The announcement of the second miracle came after a panel of cardinals and bishops affirmed the opinion of medical experts who said, in the case of the unidentified Brazilian man, there was no medical explanation for the cure.
Proof of a virtuous life and attribution of two miracles to a candidate’s intercession with God are requirements for sainthood. Mother Teresa is thus on the track for canonization, the Catholic Church’s highest honor, which Italian media speculated could come in September 2016, the anniversary of her death.
She won fame as the “saint of the gutter” for her work among India’s poor, although detractors accused her of cooperating with dictators to establish her Missionaries of Charity houses in several countries. Her supporters considered her actions as merely dealing with political realities.
