Woman Cured By Mother Teresa, Now Lives In Poverty

Danogram, India (AHN) -- A 40-year-old Indian woman who claimed Mother Teresa miraculously cured her cancer, has accused Missionaries of Charity nuns of abandoning her in poverty stricken situation.

The Missionaries of Charity, a congregation founded by Mother Teresa in eastern Indian, 310 miles from Kolkata in 1950, was busy preparing for the Albanian-born 10th death anniversary Wednesday.

Manica Besra said, "I will not go to any church."

"I will remember Mother Teresa on her death anniversary at home with my children and husband," she added.

Besra believed Mother Theresa miraculously cured her tumor on September 6, 1998, a year after Mother Teresa's death. It led the Vatican to single out the way for Mother Teresa's beatification in October 2003.

"My hut was frequented by nuns of the Missionaries of Charity before the beatification of Mother Teresa," Besra said.

"They made of lot of promises to me and assured me of financial help for my livelihood and my children's education," she claimed. She also said that she went to Vatican with the nuns for the beatification ceremony.

"After that, they forgot me," said Besra in tears.

With the small piece of family land mortgaged to a village money lender years ago, Besra said she is struggling to survive.