Monica Besra: Abdominal Tumor Disappears After Mother Teresa Medal
The story
Skip to the verdict ↓A Bengali woman's large abdominal cyst reportedly vanished overnight after a Missionaries of Charity sister placed a medal on her abdomen, in a case used for Mother Teresa's beatification.
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.
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.
It happened — and nature accounts for it.
Reviewer Notes
Miracles Jar weighs each claim two ways — how extraordinary it would be, and how strong the evidence is.
Assessed by Miracles Jar AI
A genuinely contested case: Vatican approved, treating physician directly disputed it — the evidence record is incomplete and adversarial.
This case warrants lower certainty than most Vatican-approved miracles, and the contested nature of the record is what makes it substantive. The Consulta Medica panel of eleven physicians — only two of them Catholic — found no medical explanation for the tumor's disappearance, but the panel appears not to have had full access to, or did not weigh as decisive, the original treating records and medication history.
The treating physician's public rebuttal is unusual and specific. Dr. Mustafi's account that Besra had been on anti-TB medication for nine to twelve months prior, and that the lesion's resolution was consistent with a medication response, supplies a plausible competing natural explanation; a direct rebuttal from the primary physician is rare in Vatican miracle cases and significantly lowers certainty. The Balurghat Hospital officials' allegation of pressure from the Missionaries of Charity to label the cure miraculous points the same direction, though those allegations are not independently verified.
On the other side, the overnight resolution of a 16 cm lesion — if accurately measured — would be extraordinary even with medication, but that weight depends on the accuracy of the pre-cure ultrasound interpretation.
The overlap between treatment effect and the claimed miracle is a significant confound. Net assessment: a genuinely contested case — Vatican approved, treating physician directly disputed it — with an evidence record that is incomplete and adversarial. A natural explanation is very likely.
Evidence ledger — what the verdict rests on
Consulta Medica panel of eleven physicians (two Catholic) found no medical explanation for the tumor's disappearance.
Panel had limited access to the original treating records.
Treating physician Dr. Ranjan Mustafi told the New York Times the cyst was TB-related and Besra had been on anti-TB medication for 9–12 months prior.
Direct rebuttal from the primary physician is rare in Vatican miracle cases and significantly lowers confidence.
Balurghat Hospital officials reportedly alleged pressure from the Missionaries of Charity to label the cure miraculous.
Allegations of institutional pressure are not independently verified.
The overnight resolution of a 16 cm lesion — if accurately measured — would be extraordinary even with medication.
Dependent on the accuracy of the pre-cure ultrasound interpretation.
What would raise the meter: Long-term follow-up documenting permanence, in a condition with a near-zero spontaneous-resolution base rate, would raise the meter.
What would lower it: A documented relapse, or case literature showing the condition fluctuates or remits on its own, would move it down.
How we weigh every claim — the full method, deductions and all →
The natural explanation
The leading natural account for this case is spontaneous remission & the body's own recovery. Read what it explains — and where it stops.
Sources
Tagged by proximity to the event. Primary sources are direct or contemporaneous; tertiary are downstream retellings.
- 1.Secondarynews
Business Standard / IANS, "Monica Besra Will Pray to Mark Mother's Sainthood", 2016· no public link
Covers Besra's continued faith; does not resolve the medical dispute.
- 2.Secondarynews
The Quint, "Sainthood of Mother Teresa Raises Eyebrows", 2016· no public link
Includes the treating physician's counter-claim and hospital pressure allegations.
- 3.Tertiarywebsite
"St. Teresa of Calcutta Miracles: How She Was Declared a Saint", 2016· no public link
Catholic-perspective summary; useful for Vatican procedural steps.
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