3. Her First Supposed Miracle Was Easily Debunked
For Mother Teresa to become a saint, a lengthy process of beatification and canonization needed to first take place. Usually, the process of beatification cannot begin until at least five years after a person’s death. However, Pope John Paul II waived three years of the five-year waiting period in Mother Teresa’s case. To be eligible for beatification a person must have a verified miracle attributed to them by the Catholic Church after their death. After beatification, a second verified miracle must be attributed to the person before the process of canonization can take place.
The first miracle attributed to Mother Teresa was announced by the Catholic Church on December 1, 2002. The Church claimed that an Indian woman, Monica Bersa had been miraculously cured of an abdominal tumor which was so severe that doctors had given up hope on her ever being cured. In 1998, a year after Mother Teresa’s death, Bersa was helped into a prayer room by nuns of the Missionaries of Charity. It was claimed that while standing beside a photo of Mother Teresa, “a blinding light” emanated from the portrait and passed through her body. Later one of the nuns placed a Miraculous Medal onto Bersa’s abdomen and prayed over her.
It was claimed that Bersa awoke around 1 am that night and that the tumor had miraculously disappeared. In his book, Mother Teresa: The Untold Story, Aroup Chatterjee contested these claims, disputing the idea that Bersa ever had a tumor, believing instead that she had a cyst caused by tuberculosis. Chatterjee attributed Bersa’s cure to the medical treatment she received from the Superintendent of the Balurghat Hospital. Chatterjee’s opinion was confirmed by Bersa’s doctor, Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, who attributed the disappearance of the cyst to the nine months of medication and treatment Bersa received.