Journey to Sainthood
A nun of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, embraces Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican yesterday. The canonisation of Mother Teresa, the 1979 Nobel peace prize winner who died aged 87 in India in 1997, takes place today in the square
AS the Roman Catholic Church prepares to declare Mother Teresa of Calcutta officially a saint, the man she is believed to have miraculously intervened to rescue from the brink of death says he does not think she chose him specifically.
Mother Teresa, a Nobel peace prize winner known during her lifetime as the “saint of the gutters” for her work among the poor of India and who died in 1997, is due to be canonised by Pope Francis today at a ceremony expected to bring more than 100 000 people to St Peter’s Square.
The church opened the way for her canonisation last year after declaring the recovery of Brazilian Marcilio Haddad Andrino from a life-threatening brain infection a miracle.
Andrino, who is 43 and lives in Rio de Janeiro, told a news conference at the Vatican on Friday that he felt very grateful but thought anybody else could equally have benefited from her intervention.
“If it hadn’t happened to me maybe there would be someone else tomorrow,” said Andrino, who was due to attend today’s ceremony with his wife, Fernanda.
When Andrino was afflicted by brain abscesses and hydrocephalus from which doctors feared he would not recover in 2008, the couple prayed to Mother Teresa.
His condition deteriorated to the point that by December he was unconscious in hospital.
Andrino was scheduled for brain surgery, but suddenly awoke shortly before the operation without the headache that had been tormenting him.
“I was able to spend Christmas with my family and six months later I went back to work with no problems,” he said. —