Mother Teresa has moved closer to sainthood after Pope Francis recognised a second miracle attributed to her intervention. She is expected to be canonised in September next year.
The Vatican said the pope and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints had recognised that a Brazilian man with several brain tumours was miraculously healed in 2008 after prayers for the intercession of Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 and has been on the "fast track" to sainthood.
Mother Teresa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her mission to the poor in the slums of Mumbai, was beatified in 2003 after the first of the two miracles needed for canonisation was recognised.
The Holy See said today: "The Holy Father has authorised the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to proclaim the decree concerning the miracle attributed to the intercession of blessed Mother Teresa."
The decree recognising the miracle is expected to be published by the Vatican in the next few days.
The miracle concerned a newly-married 35-year-old engineer from Santos in Brazil whose life was threatened by multiple cerebral abscesses with hydrocephalus obstruction. He already had a kidney transplant and was being treated with immune-suppressors. He was in a coma and not expected to survive when his wife urged people to pray for Mother Teresa to intercede with God on his behalf.
Soon after this, doctors who were about to operate found the man fully conscious and wondering why he was in an operating theatre.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia in 1910. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1949, caring for the poor and sick in what was then Calcutta. She became known as the "saint of the gutter" and was personally known to Pope Francis having sat beside him during a synod.
She has been criticised over some of her political relationships, the practical effectiveness of her mission and her evangelistic practices.
