The strict rules of Vatican require two proven miracles before reaching the right to be proclaimed a saint. The second miracle for Mother Theresa was proven, after she was beatified in 2003.
She was recognized for the healing of a woman in India, who had been suffering for years from an acute form of tumor in her stomach. From that day, Monica Besra, a poor woman in a deep Indian village in the border between Bangladesh, Nepal and Buthan, has received public attention and has even caused debates between doctors and theologians.
For the first time for an Albanian television, she confessed the miracle that Mother Theresa realized on her.
“20 years ago I was diagnosed with a tumor in my stomach. I received many medications, but didn’t get any better. I spent all my money with doctors and medicaments. One relative advised me the Mother Theresa hospital, because it was free. That’s why I went there”, Monica says.
Top Channel: Can you tell us how you were healed?
Monica Besra: There was a special mass for Mother Theresa on September 5th, but although I was hardly able to walk, I gathered the strength to go there and pray. During the mass, one of the sisters took a medallion of Mary, which had touched the body of Mother Theresa during the funeral. She placed her picture on my stomach and prayed: “Mother, today is your day. You have loved the poor. Do something for Monica”. I felt a light coming out of the picture of Mother Theresa and it entered into my body. The next day I was another person. I woke up on September sixth completely healed. This was a miracle of Mother Theresa”, she says.
Top Channel: Many people are skeptical about your healing. What do you have to say to them?
Monica Besra: By that time I was staying in bed and could barely move. On September sixth I woke up and got out of bed on my own feet, holding my weight by the room’s walls at first. Then I noticed I didn’t need to anymore. I had no more stomach pain. The sisters and doctors were surprised to see that the tumor was gone. This was because of the blessing from mother Theresa.
Top Channel: What religion are you affiliated to?
Monica Besra: We used to be Hindu, but after I was healed by Mother Theresa, we all converted to Catholicism.
Top Channel: Vatican has now proclaimed Mother Theresa a saint. What does this mean for you?
Monica Besra: For me, Mother Theresa has always been a saint, from the moment she removed my tumor. Her proclamation as a saint proves that she was really sent by God on this Earth, so that she could help and heal the poor, the sick and those forgotten by the society.
The pictures of Mother Theresa are seen in every wall of her modest house in Besra. Monica has documented in those pictures the moments when Monica herself is seen praying by the grave of Mother Theresa in Calcutta. She doesn’t hesitate to take out a picture on which she prays every day, because, as she says, it gave her life back.
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