The fast track to sainthood

VATICAN CITY - Vatican-issued stamps, a display of her blood, even a musical and cartoon celebrating her life: These are some of the ways Mother Teresa's fans are honoring the nun who will take a step toward sainthood when she is beatified next month.

Factories are churning out Mother Teresa rosaries, crucifixes and key chains ahead of the Oct. 19 beatification, and on Tuesday a line snaked around the Vatican post office for a new set of postcard stamps bearing her image.

The preparations are steaming ahead at a breathtaking pace, which seems only natural, since Mother Teresa is on the fast track for sainthood.

Born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, Mother Teresa died Sept. 5, 1997, in India, where she spent most of her life caring for the poorest in Calcutta's slums.

A year after she died, Pope John Paul II waived the normal five-year waiting period for the beatification process to begin, convinced of her saintliness and apparently intent on at least beatifying her in his lifetime.

Last year, the pope approved a miracle credited to her intercession; a second miracle is needed for her to be made a saint. He scheduled her beatification ceremony for the weeklong festivities surrounding his 25th anniversary as pope - an honor clearly reserved for someone close to his heart.

There have been reports that John Paul wanted to skip the beatification process and proceed directly to naming Mother Teresa a saint in October - an unprecedented move.

The small Italian daily L'Eco di Bergamo reported that the Vatican secretary of state sent a letter to top cardinals in June on behalf of the pope asking whether they backed making Mother Teresa a saint immediately. The majority replied that they preferred her cause follow the normal path.

The Missionaries of Charity are planning for the beatification and have arranged for relics of Mother Teresa - samples of her blood framed in an Indian-made reliquary - to be put on display at Rome's St. John Lateran basilica.

Technically, beatification is the Roman Catholic Church's permission to hold public veneration for holy people. Only after Mother Teresa is beatified can the relics go on display.

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