Andrino's cure, declared a miracle by Pope Francis earlier this year, was the final step needed to declare Mother Teresa a saint.
Andrino's cure, declared a miracle by Pope Francis earlier this year, was the final step needed to declare Mother Teresa a saint.
Rimini: Mother Teresa is known for having loved beggars, prostitutes and street children without discrimination or distinction. Marcilio Andrino is convinced she also loved him - and interceded with God to cure him of a viral brain infection when doctors had given him little chance of survival.
Andrino's cure, declared a miracle by Pope Francis earlier this year, was the final step needed to declare Mother Teresa a saint. She will be canonized by Francis on Sunday in St. Peter's Square in the highlight of his Holy Year of Mercy, a yearlong emphasis on the merciful side of the Catholic Church.
The Brazilian mechanical engineer and his wife, Fernanda, said Mother Teresa's message, conveyed through a lifetime of working for the -"poorest of the poor-" in India's slums, is that God's mercy is for everyone.
-"Fernanda and I are just normal people within God's people,-" Andrino said on the sidelines of a Catholic meeting before the canonization. -"God didn't choose who to send down his mercy to, just like Mother Theresa, who cared for everybody without any distinction.-"
According to the official account, Andrino was in a coma and dying on Dec. 9, 2008 from a viral brain infection that had resulted in multiple abscesses and an accumulation of fluid around the brain.
Surgery was scheduled for 6:10 p.m. but the anesthesiologist couldn't immediately intubate him. When the surgeon arrived a half-hour later, he -"found the patient inexplicably awake and without pain,-" according to the postulator of Mother Teresa's cause, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk.
-"The patient asked the doctor, 'What I am doing here ' The next morning ... the patient was fully awake and without any headache; he was asymptomatic with normal cognition,-" Kolodiejchuk said in a statement earlier this year.
Kolodiejchuk said Fernanda had been praying for Mother Teresa's intercession specifically during the half-hour when her husband was supposed to be in surgery.
-"Marcilio was fine. He was sitting up. He was talking in intensive care (at the hospital) and I realized that he was cured, that Mother Teresa had interceded on our behalf and cured Marcilio,-" Fernanda said. -"This was confirmed by the exams which proved the reduction of the abscesses and the disappearance of the hydrocephaly, making us sure that operations and drainage were no longer needed.-"
Andrino has since resumed working and is in good health - and despite tests showing he had become sterile, has had two children since.
-"Every time I look at Marcilio and our children, I feel very grateful,-" Fernanda said. -"I am very grateful to God and Mother Teresa.-"
