Kolkata: The woman whose miraculous healing that fast tracked Mother Teresa to her beatification in 2003 was present with her husband and three children at the state level tribute accorded to St Teresa of Calcutta at Netaji Indoor Stadium October 2.

It was in the same stadium 19 years ago on September 13 that over 90 heads of states from around the world turned up for the state funeral accorded to Mother Teresa.

In 1998, Monica Besra claimed she had been cured after praying to Mother Teresa, thus paving the way for Mother’s Beatification.

“About 18 years back I developed a tumor in my abdomen. I visited many doctors, and underwent long medication process, but nothing helped. We went to doctors at the nearby government hospital in Balurhat, but the treatment was so expensive that we had to mortgage our land,” Besra, now 50, told Matters India seated in the front row of faithful just behind the column of some 400 priests.

More than 15,000 people attended Mass in the fully packed stadium.

On her right, in the opposite isle was seated Sr Prema, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity.

Carrying the ciborium with hosts for consecration and Holy Communion Monica Besra led the short offertory procession flanked by her husband, daughter and two sons.

One of her sons could not be present for the event as he had to stay back home.

Incidentally, one of her sons Lawrence Murmu has joined the Salesian seminary in Bandel situated adjacent to eastern India’s famed Marian Shrine.

Besra says her sister took her to the recently-opened Missionaries of Charity center near their village when everything else failed.

“I was so ill I couldn’t eat anything. I would immediately throw up. The Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity even took me to a doctor in Siliguri, but he said I might not regain consciousness if operated upon,” the mother of five recalled.

Finally on September 4, a day before Mother Teresa’s first death anniversary, the MC Sisters told Besra that they were going to Church to pray.

“I was too ill to move, but two Sisters supported me there. There was a photograph of Mother Teresa there. When I entered the church a blinding light emanated from Mother’s photo and enveloped me. I didn’t know what was happening. I was too ill to sit for long and was soon brought back to my bed,” she narrated that day’s events.

Besra quickly revealed the secret, “That night one of the sisters brought a medallion of Mother Teresa and tied it on my abdomen after saying a prayer to Mother to help me.”

Monica recalls, “I had been praying to Mother for a long time. I used to have trouble sleeping because of the pain, but that night I fell asleep. At about 1 am I woke up to go the washroom and saw that my stomach was flat and the tumor was gone. There was no pain. I was able to go to the bathroom without help. I was so surprised I woke up the woman in the next bed and told her what had happened. In the morning I told the Sisters.”

After that the nuns took her to a doctor to get her checked and he confirmed that the tumor was cured.

The “miracle” was claimed as Mother Teresa’s first posthumous act of healing – she died in 1997 – and was cited at a ceremony in October 2003 in which the Albanian-born nun was beatified by the Vatican.

Brushing aside sarcasm of critics who belittle ‘the miraculous cure,’ a serene looking and grace-filled Besra said that her own faith in Mother Teresa remains unshaken.

“I find peace when I close my eyes and think of her. I often see her in my dreams,” she added.