Monica Besra: Abdominal Tumor Disappears After Mother Teresa Medal

Monica Besra, a member of the Santhali tribal community in West Bengal, had been treated at Balurghat Government Hospital for TB meningitis. In 1998 she had a large abdominal swelling — variously described as a TB-related cystic lesion or ovarian cyst — measuring approximately 16 centimeters. On September 5, 1998, the feast day of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (one year after her death), a Missionaries of Charity sister placed a medal of the Virgin Mary on Besra's abdomen and the sisters prayed together. By morning, Besra reported her abdomen was flat and she felt healed.

The Vatican opened its investigation in 2002. An eleven-member panel of physicians found the cure inexplicable, and Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa on October 19, 2003.

The controversy is substantive. Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, who treated Besra at Balurghat Hospital, stated publicly that she had been on anti-tuberculosis drugs for up to a year, and that the lesion's resolution was consistent with medication response — "It was not a miracle." Hospital officials claimed they were pressured to support the miraculous narrative. Besra herself consistently maintained she was healed supernaturally and the Missionaries of Charity denied any coercion.

This case warrants a lower confidence rating than most Vatican-approved miracles. The treating physician's public rebuttal is unusual and specific, and the prior treatment course provides a plausible competing explanation. The Vatican's panel appears not to have had full access to, or did not weigh as decisive, the medication history.