--- title: Mother Teresa: This Was Mother Teresa’s First Miracle description: It was announced Friday that Mother Teresa will become a saint, but her first miracle has been recognized for more than a decade. canonical: https://time.com/4154838/mother-teresa-first-miracle/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-18T16:03:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:29:55.365Z article:section: History og:title: This Was Mother Teresa’s First Miracle og:description: It happened in 1998. og:url: https://time.com/4154838/mother-teresa-first-miracle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcafe8d1b923d6d53/69887612bc6cfcf8433daec5/mother-teresa-second-miracle.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pope approves sanctification of Mother Teresa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Was Mother Teresa’s First Miracle twitter:description: It happened in 1998. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcafe8d1b923d6d53/69887612bc6cfcf8433daec5/mother-teresa-second-miracle.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Was Mother Teresa’s First Miracle  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 18, 2015 4:03 PM UTC  A file photo dated 12 December 1979 shows late Mother Teresa in Oslo after receiving the Nobel Peace Price. A file photo dated 12 December 1979 shows late Mother Teresa in Oslo after receiving the Nobel Peace Price.EPA  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 18, 2015 4:03 PM UTC It was announced Friday that Mother Teresa [will become a saint](http://time.com/4154671/mother-teresa-saint/?xid=homepage), after Pope Francis recognized a second miracle she had performed, the requirement for sainthood. But Mother Teresa’s first miracle has officially been recognized for more than a decade. In 1998, one year after her death, her intercession reportedly cured an Indian woman of a stomach tumor. TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/2001-08-27/page/16/) the story of Monica Besra and her tumor in 2001\. “There was no way any doctor would have operated on me at that hour,” Besra told TIME of writhing in pain in a home that was run by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity on Sept. 5, 1998\. “So the nuns just started praying and kept a Mother Teresa medallion on my stomach. The pain subsided, and the tumor vanished.” As Episcopal Bishop Salvatore Lobo explained at the time, Besra’s recovery met the requirements to be declared a miracle: “It is organic, permanent, immediate and intercessionary in nature.” Though Besra’s husband would later [say](http://time.com/vault/issue/2002-10-21/page/10/) that he believed that medicine had cured his wife, not divine intervention, Mother Teresa’s first miracle was officially recognized by the Vatican and counted toward her [beatification](https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2003/documents/hf%5Fjp-ii%5Fhom%5F20031019%5Fmother-theresa.html) in 2003. **_Read TIME’s 1975 cover story about Mother Teresa:_** [Living Saints](http://time.com/vault/issue/1975-12-29/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4154838/mother-teresa-first-miracle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4154838/mother-teresa-first-miracle/"},"headline":"This Was Mother Teresa’s First Miracle","datePublished":"2015-12-18T16:03:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:29:55.365Z","description":"It was announced Friday that Mother Teresa will become a saint","url":"https://time.com/4154838/mother-teresa-first-miracle/","keywords":["faith","Religion"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcafe8d1b923d6d53/69887612bc6cfcf8433daec5/mother-teresa-second-miracle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcafe8d1b923d6d53/69887612bc6cfcf8433daec5/mother-teresa-second-miracle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope approves sanctification of Mother Teresa","caption":"Pope approves sanctification of Mother Teresa","creditText":"EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4154838/mother-teresa-first-miracle/","name":"This Was Mother Teresa’s First Miracle"}}]}] ```