St Teresa of Kolkata?

On a hot summer afternoon a few years ago, a young tribal girl in West Bengal's Raigunj town came back home from work complaining of a severe stomach ache. A bad case of upset stomach, her parents thought. But when the pain refused to subside even after some weeks, the girl was taken to a doctor. A few pathological tests later, she was diagnosed with a malignant tumour. It had grown enormously and her condition was deteriorating fast. Her poor parents couldn't do anything but watch their daughter dying slowly—they couldn't afford the expensive treatment. As a last resort, the young girl and her family decided to pray to a Catholic nun they had only heard about but never met. Mother Teresa was the last hope for the dying girl. The Saint of the Gutters, the girl claims, did what expensive medicines might have failed to do. Today, the girl is leading a healthy life.

Even four years after the death of the Nobel laureate-nun from Calcutta, her order, the Missionaries of Charity, is deluged with thousands of reports of 'favours' received after praying to the Catholic nun. But the Diocesan inquiry, looking for causes for the beatification of Mother Teresa, has decided to report the Raigunj "miracle" to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican. It is expected to complete by August 15 its task of gathering material on her virtues, holiness and defects. If everything goes according to expectations, Mother Teresa could be beatified "within months", possibly guaranteeing that she will become a saint in the shortest time in modern history. Her 'stature' and, as Postulator Brian Kolodiejchuk, the Church appointee for following up Mother Teresa's case with the Vatican, puts it, "her solid reputation during her lifetime" makes the Albanian nun's case extraordinary.

But the choice of the 'miracle' was a hard task for the Diocesan inquiry team, or the Tribunal, led by Bishop Lobo. There were two other competing examples—a French lady from Bordeaux with terminal leukaemia getting completely cured after praying to Mother Teresa, and a Palestinian girl suffering from cancer who claimed she got cured after the Mother appeared in her dreams. But the Tribunal eventually settled in favour of the tribal girl's example. Says 92-year-old Father Edward Le Joly, 'spiritual father' of the Missionaries of Charity and the only surviving priest who's been with the Mother since the first day of the congregation: "She lived and worked here, among the poorest of the poor. That's why it was decided to have a case from the state." Father Joly was the first among more than 100 witnesses examined by the Tribunal—each of them were asked to answer a questionnaire of about 300 questions. Besides, the Tribunal also studied thousands of documents, writings, books, letters and communications relating to the nun as part of the inquiry into her service.

Says the Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry D' Souza: "All this material will be sent to the Vatican. Even the miracle will be reported. If Rome accepts it, then the Holy Father will proceed with beatification." According to papal specifications, a miracle, or a 'favour' in church terminology, is one in which a person is completely cured of an ailment by wearing a medallion or locket given by Mother Teresa or by simply praying to her after medical science has failed. But the church does not recognise a miracle as long as there is no clinching physical evidence of it that defies alternative explanations. In the case of the Santhali girl from Raigunj, a doctor has certified that he did not "find any natural reason for the cure". The Tribunal is sending all the prescriptions, X-ray reports, photographs of the tumour before and after cure and the doctor's observations on the case to the Vatican.

But there is no dearth of reported miracles by Mother Teresa. Says Sister Lynn of the order: "Everyday, Mother House (the headquarters) receives calls from various parts of the world about Mother's miracles. But we have taken an oath of secrecy. We cannot disclose the details. We have conclusive proofs of the miracles and these will be disclosed on the day of the concluding ceremony of the Tribunal's inquiry."

Technically, after the Pope orders beatification, which will mean that Mother Teresa will be recognised as a blessed soul, there's another step before sainthood can be bestowed upon her. She can be canonised only after there's a second and a new miracle. But past experience has shown that it could take up to 20 years for even beatification to be ordered after confirmation of the first miracle. But "a single exception" has been made for Mother Teresa. In fact, the process of sainthood was initiated just about a year after her death on September 5, 1997, dispensing with the mandatory five-year wait. But the eventual sainthood could still take up to a decade. Sister Nirmala, the superior general and Mother's successor, is not willing to hazard a guess on this. "It isn't possible to predict when the Mother could be beatified," she says. But Archbishop D' Souza is optimistic: "The Holy Father is keen to do something for the Mother and we're hopeful that he'll do something fast."

Mother Teresa's canonisation could happen earlier than is normal if Pope John Paul II prefers to do it in his lifetime itself since the Mother was considered by the church to be a "living saint". The "liberal" Pope has canonised over 200 saints during his tenure—and the fastest beatification by the present Pope has been that of Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of the lay movement, Opus Dei. He was declared blessed 17 years after his death. Clearly, India's most famous nun promises to beat that record by a long shot.