Members of the Missionaries of Charity -- the order founded by Mother Teresa -- are collecting relics of the Nobel Laureate, including her blood and hair, for the beatification ceremony at the Vatican on October 19.
The relics, according to Catholic Bishops Conference of India spokesman Father Babu Joseph, will be part of the elaborate ceremonies at the Vatican when Mother Teresa will be named the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
The relics are being classified into three categories.
First class relics will consist of the Mother's body parts including her hair and blood that the nuns have in their possession. Her body is not being exhumed to recover more relics, members of her order said. These relics would be accepted only after scientific tests and authentication from the postulator who handles the beatification on the Vatican's behalf .
Second class relics will consist of the Mother's possessions including her clothes, bed, sheets and other items she used.
Third class relics will include cloth items that have touched Mother Teresa's tomb; these would be distributed to the public.
Followers of Mother Teresa, whose beatification is the fastest in the Catholic Church's recent history, can seek her intercession for blessings and other prayers, "but definitely can't be worshipped" after beatification, Father Joseph explained. A person can be venerated according to Catholic tradition after s/he is canonised, which is the next step. However, institutions can be named after the beatification.
As the Church prepares for the October 19 ceremony, a group from Kerala has appealed for funds to build a church in the Mother's name. Many followers plan to travel to the Vatican for the October 19 event, which will be telecast live by several television channels including Doordarshan.
Father Joseph said the Mother's sainthood, achieved through canonisation, will happen only after another "authentic miracle" occurs through her intervention. The beatification occurred because of a reported miracle when a poor woman in a Bengal village was cured of a tumour after praying to the Mother. The lady, Monica Birsa, will travel to the Vatican for the beatification ceremony, according to Church sources.
Though no native Indians have been made saints, at least three of them were beatified for their work and await sainthood. Four foreign missionaries who worked in India, including Saint Thomas who founded the Catholic Church in India, have been anointed saints. The body of one of them, Saint Francis Xavier, is preserved in a Goa church.
