A DOCTOR who treated the woman whose miraculous cure could pave the way for Mother Teresa to become a saint has dismissed the event as nonsense. Just days before the beatification ceremony for the ‘angel of Calcutta’ in Rome, to be conducted by Pope John Paul II, a doctor in West Bengal has said there is no evidence to support the belief that Monica Besra was miraculously cured.
Besra, from the village of Dhulinakod, 450 miles from Calcutta, was dying of a stomach tumour five years ago when nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, on the first anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death, tied an oval-shaped silver medallion bearing her picture to Besra’s stomach.
Her subsequent cure, which happened almost immediately, was hailed as a miracle. It is this alleged act of divine intervention that underpins Mother Teresa’s beatification on October 19 and forms the cornerstone of the claim being made for ...