Rejecting widespread scepticism about her "miraculous" cure, Mon-ica Besra, the Indian tribal woman whose recovery from a stomach tumor in 1998 is attributed to Mother Teresa, insists it was not medicines but the Albanian-born nun who healed her.
She also dismisses claims by cynics that she has been cashing in on the fame which has come her way since the cure five years ago.
PHOTO: AFP
"It was Mother's blessings that cured me," Besra, 35, said in the village of Nakor, 450km north of Calcutta.
"I was suffering from a tumor in the stomach, pain in the chest and head," said Besra, whose healing is being cited as the reason for Mother Teresa's beatification on Oct. 19 at the Vatican.
Attired in a sari, squatting on a low stool in her unpretentious mud-and-wood house, Besra recalled that she could not stand without support and had problems with her vision and hearing.
"All my problems were cured and Mother is the one who did it," said Besra, now a Roman Catholic.
Remembering the "miracle," the tall and wiry Besra said she had been in a home run by the Missionaries of Charity -- the order founded by Mother Teresa in 1950 -- in Potiram village about 50km from her home.
"I was brought there by the sisters after doctors told me to return to hospital only after three months. The doctors were afraid that as I was so weak I would die on the operating table," she said.
On the morning of Sept. 5, 1998, the first anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa, the sisters announced a special mass, said Besra, a member of the Santhal tribe.
"I struggled to reach the chapel. There was a picture of Mother Teresa on the wall there. As I neared it, I felt a beam of light from the picture on my face and body. I began to sweat and my heart began to beat faster," she said.
That evening, two sisters placed a tiny aluminum medal blessed by Mother Teresa on her stomach and tied it around her waist after praying over her. She dozed off to sleep soon after but woke up at about 1am on Sept. 6.
"I remember the time as my bed was next to a wall which had Mother Teresa's picture and a clock. I felt my stomach and found the lump was gone. I got up from bed and helped myself to water," she said.
When she told the sisters of the cure in the morning, they immediately informed church authorities in Calcutta, who instituted an inquiry into the miracle. The probe began in November 1999 and was completed in August 2001.
Last December, Pope John Paul II officially attributed the miracle of Besra's healing to Mother Teresa, hastening the process of declaring the world's most famous nun a saint. But scepticism about the cure abounds.
"Monica Besra was rid of her tumor with the help of very strong medicines and treatment for several days at Balurghat Hospital," former West Bengal health minister Partho De recently told reporters.
Leading Indian rationalists have said it would be a shame if Mother Teresa's elevation to sainthood were based on "lies," saying she deserved to be considered a saint for her work for Calcutta's poor.
Besra hit back at her critics.
"When I went back after my cure to the same doctors who had given up on me, they were shocked at my recovery. They kept asking how it had happened.
"As for benefits, we had to borrow money from lenders after mortgaging some of our land. We got 30,000 rupees [US$625] for it and now are working hard to repay that," she said.
Besra is looking forward to attending the beatification ceremony in Rome. She is set to leave for Italy tomorrow.
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