Mass, diocesan celebration for Mother Teresa sainthood

Hyderabad: The Archd-iocese of Hyderabad will celebrate the September 4 canonisation of Mother Teresa at the Vatican with a Mass  at all parishes and a diocesan celebration at St Mary’s Basilica here. “The canonisation is an occasion of great joy, said Father Sunder, principal of St Mary’s Degree College. Representatives from the Mother Teresa Home at Musheerabad will offer a special Mass at St Mary’s Church on Sunday.

Saint Mother
Mother Teresa, the revered but controversial nun, will be declared a saint on September 4. Here’s more on it:

Event at 2pm
Pope Francis will declare Mother Teresa a saint in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican during the canonisation Mass. The Mass will start at 10.30am local time. That’s 9.30 am UK time, which is 2pm IST.

Unusually Fast
Her canonisation has been completed in unusually quick time on the back of the extraordinary popularity she enjoyed during her lifetime and with the help of influential supporters.

The miracles
1. Monica Besra, whose healing was Mother Teresa's first miracle, will spend September 4 praying at her home in a Bengal village. Monica, who was cured of a large stomach tumour miraculously, says it was due to the divine power of Mother Teresa whom she worships.
2. Pope Francis in December decreed that Brazilian man Marcilio Haddad Andrino’s cure was a miracle after Vatican doctors said it was medically inexplicable.

Road to sainthood

• 1997. After Mother Teresa’s death, the Holy See began the process of beatification.
• 2002. The Vatican recognised as a miracle the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of Monica Besra
• 2003. The Mother was beatified as ‘Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’ She was beatified by then Pope John Paul II in a fast-tracked process in a ceremony attended by 3,00,000 pilgrims.
• 2008. Another healing attributed to Mother dates back to December 9, 2008 and concerns a Brazilian man facing serious brain problems. Family members prayed to mother and he recovered, leaving doctors at a loss to explain how.

Controversies
During her life, Teresa was widely revered as a self-sacrificing force for good, despite ferocious criticism from prominent intellectuals including the British writer Christopher Hitchens and the Australian feminist academic Germaine Greer. Hitchens wrote a book about her entitled “Hell's Angel” that branded her a hypocrite.

The sainthood process
1. Church officials examine a candidate’s good deeds for evidence of virtue
2. A bishop submits the candidate’s case to the Vatican
3. Congregation for the Causes of Saints scrutinises the case
4. Once the Congregation approves the case, it is forwarded to the Pope
5. The Pope decides if the candidate has lived a virtuous life
6. An ndividual is beatified when one of the miracles is certified posthumously
7. Canonization occurs once a second miracle is verified posthumously
www. cnn.com

Other Saints from India
1. Saint Gonsalo Garcia (1556 - 1597) Patron of the city of Bombay
2. Saint Alphonsa Muttathupadathu (1910-1946) Patronage against illness
3. Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805 - 1871)
4. Mother Euphrasia Eluvathingal (1877 - 1952)