Needing a miracle, she found one From Satinder Bindra Mother Teresa Steps to Sainthood In the 10th century, Pope John XV developed an official canonisation procedure, which went through some revisions in the ensuing 1,000 years.

KOLKATA, India (CNN) -- The tumor on her stomach had grown so large that Monica Besra appeared seven months pregnant. She would die unless it vanished.

With nothing left to lose, the 30-year-old homemaker in September 1998 visited the Missionaries of Charity. She prayed for her life, she prayed for a miracle.

She prayed to Mother Teresa.

"As soon as I stepped into the church, there was a photograph of Mother Teresa, and there was a light from the photograph that came toward me and I was stunned," Besra told CNN Tuesday. "Later, the sisters prayed for me, and I went to sleep. When I got up at 1 in the morning, I found the big tumor had disappeared.''

What saved her, she said, was nothing less than a miracle, and the Roman Catholic Church agrees.

Pope John Paul II's office has declared the event a miracle, clearing one of the final hurdles standing in the way of declaring the nun a saint, Italian news agencies reported Tuesday.

Mother Teresa, whose work in Kolkata's slums won her a Nobel Peace Prize, is reputed to be on the fast track for sainthood because the pope wants to promote her message of love and kindness to the poor. The church has already conferred the title of "venerable" on Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, and now needs to document that she performed one more miracle to make her a saint.

Count R.N Bhattaccharya as one of Mother Teresa's believers. Science cannot explain what happened to Besra, said Bhattaccharya, who is the woman's physician.

"I did not find any reason that without an operation a tumor of such size would disappear overnight," he said. "So I think maybe the Mother's blessings were on Monica."

Besra said she thinks of Mother Teresa all the time. So does her doctor.

(AGI) - Vatican City, Oct 20 - John Paul II proclaimed Mother Teresa of Calcutta blessed yesterday morning at about 10.15, in response to the petition pronounced by the Archbishop of Calcutta, Lucas Sirkar. The banner bearing her image on the facade of St Peter's Basilica was immediately unfurled. Monsignor Sirkar said, "Most Blessed Father, the Archbishop of Calcutta humbly asks His Holiness to include the Venerable Servant of God Teresa of Calcutta among the Blessed". The Pope replied, using the royal we of infallible declarations, "we accept the wishes of Our Brother Lucas Sirkar, Archbishop of Calcutta, and many other Brother Bishops and many faithful Catholics all over the world, after hearing the opinion of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, by means of Our Apostolic Authority, we concede that the Venerable Servant of God Teresa of Calcutta be called Blessed from now on and that her feastday be celebrated in the places and according to the rules established by the law, every year, in the day of her ascent to heaven, September 5. Only Saint Francis, canonised by Pope Innocent IX one year after his death, has enjoyed such a recognition more rapidly than the diminutive Albanian nun, who died seven years ago. Two hours before the Mass began, punctually at ten o'clock, Saint Peter's Square was already filled with people. The crowds spilled out into via della Conciliation and surrounding streets. The huge TV screens reached as far as largo Giovanni XXIII. It is estimated that the crowd was bigger than the Pontifical Prefecture had expected. They had issued 250,000 invitations. It is difficult to say exactly how many people attended the beatification, in any case more than 300,000 people. This is a real record, equalling the celebrations in Saint Peter's Square during the Jubilee Year and the beatification of Padre Pio in June 1999. A Mass celebrated by the Pope followed the beatification rite with a procession of people in Indian costume carrying flowers and candles to the altar. The esplanade in front of the church, where 100 Cardinals and 100 Bishops were sitting, was decorated with 43,000 flowers which came from Liguria this time and not Holland. In honour of Mother Teresa and her commitment to those in need, the privilege of decorating Saint Peter's Square was awarded to a co-operative "Il Cammino" whose aims are to help socially sensitive people to recover a position in society.