The canonization date, September 4, is to be announced at the upcoming Consistory. The miracle attributed to her intercession and recognised by doctors from the medical council of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints was approved by the dicastery’s cardinals and bishops and yesterday, Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire announced that the Pope has now also given his approval.
Pope Francis recognised the miracle attributed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta on his birthday, authorising the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to proclaim the decree concerning the miracle which took place with her intercession. The news was announced by Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire. The newspaper’s Vatican correspondent Stefania Falasca wrote that the “apostle of the ordinary” will be canonized in all likelihood on 4 September, during the Holy Year of Mercy. The date is to be made public at the next Consistory. On 15 December, the extraordinary case of healing was submitted to the congregation of bishops and cardinals for evaluation and was given full
September 5 is a Monday and marks the 10th anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birth. The nun, who was born Anjëzë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in the Albanian city of Skopje, became a symbol of love for those living in the gutters of Calcutta. The canonization will as said before most likely take place the day before, so 4 September.
The miracle that has earnt the Albanian blessed woman her sainthood, is the scientifically inexplicable healing of a Brazilian man who was suffering from an end-stage malignant brain tumour. The faithful, a member of the diocese of Santos, experienced a complete recovery after praying intensely to Mother Teresa: CAT scans suddenly and inexplicably showed that the large cancerous tumour that had developed in his brain had completely disappeared.
The extraordinary healing of the now 42-year-old man, took place on 9 December 2008. He had suffered from “multiple cerebral abscesses with hydrocephalus obstruction,” he had “already had a kidney transplant and was being treated with immune-suppressors”. On 10 September this year, the medical council of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously approved the scientifically inexplicable miracle, with 7 votes out of 7. The vote of the theological council was also unanimous in its approval of the miracle. As part of routine practice, these theologians were called to evaluate the flawless cause and effect connection between the unequivocal invocation to the Blessed Mother Teresa and the Brazilian man’s unexpected healing.
The 35-year-old man, an engineer by profession, has recently got married when he was diagnosed with eight abscesses in his brain. On December 9, the patient, who was in a coma by them, was taken to the operating theatre but technical complications led to a half-hour delay. When the surgeon arrived, he found the patient sitting up, awake and asymptomatic. The man, who had regained complete consciousness, asked the surgeon: “What am I doing here?” “I’ve never seen a case like it,” the doctor said in his testimony. In an article published on its website, Avvenire said “given how critical the situation was, the young professional’s wife, a devotee of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, had asked acquaintances to pray to her. In the half hour spent waiting for the operation to begin, the woman, a priest and family relatives gathered in the hospital chapel and prayed to Mother Teresa for the woman’s husband to be saved.
On his visit to Tirana in September 2014, Pope Francis described his encounter with Mother Teresa of Calcutta at the 1994 Synod. The Blessed woman was never fazed by anything, not even the Synod assembly and “always said what she wanted to say”, Francis confided to the priest who had acted as his interpreter during his visit to Albania. This comment was later revealed at the press conference in Tirana, by the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Lombardi.
Remembering the circumstances of his meeting with the Blessed woman known for her work among the poorest of the poor, Francis said: “She sat right behind me during the sessions. I admired her strength, the determinedness with which she spoke, never letting herself be fazed by the assembly of bishops. She said what she wanted to say…” Francis said before adding with a smile on his face: “If she had been my superior I would have been scared!”
