Pope Francis Approves Miracle For Mother Teresa's Sainthood

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Pope Francis signed off on the miracle needed for Mother Teresa to become a saint - one of the Catholic Church's highest honors - two decades after her death.

Mother Teresa is most known for caring for the poorest of the poor.

The Vatican said on Friday that Francis approved a decree attributing a miracle to Mother Teresa's intercession during an audience with the head of the Vatican's saint-making office on Thursday, his 79th birthday.

"We are very happy. It is right because she is a great saint for the Church. Everybody knows her. She is not the founder of my congregation but we are all one church. We are happy that the church is recognizing her as a saint. We already recognized her but now the church will officially recognize her soon," said Sister Consuelo, a pilgrim from Italy.

"It surely is positive news but also quite obvious and expected - who else could be made saint if not her nowadays," said Maria Giulia Bertani a resident in Rome.

No date was set for the canonization but Italian media have speculated that the ceremony will take place in the first week of September - to coincide with the anniversary of her death, and during Francis' Holy Year of Mercy.

The miracle needed for her canonization concerns the inexplicable cure in 2008 of a man in Brazil with multiple brain abscesses who, within a day of being in a coma, was cured, according to a report in Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference.

The Vatican ascertained that his wife's prayers for Mother Teresa's intercession were responsible, the report said.

Mother Teresa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, died on 5 September 1997, aged 87.

At the time, her Missionaries of Charity order had nearly 4,000 nuns and ran roughly 600 orphanages, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and clinics around the world.

"She has left for us an example of taking care of one another, knowing that we are one in Christ. It doesn't necessarily matter where you come from or your social strata. In other words, when you see a person that is suffering, it does not matter his religion or our religion, where the person comes from, you have to try to help the person," said Father Chukwuemeka Conyeriri a pilgrim from Nigeria.