Winnipeg-born priest makes the case for Mother Teresa's sainthood

A North End Winnipeg man, who grew up in humble beginnings, has friends in high places.

FatherBrian Kolodiejchuk, a member of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers,has spent the past 17 years gathering evidence and data to make the case for Mother Teresa to be declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

On Sept. 4, the humble nun who worked with the sick and poor in Calcutta and founded religious orders of men and women, will be formally canonized by Pope Francis in Rome. Kolodiejchuk will be there in St. Peter's Square.

"On a human level, it's a sense of mission accomplished, working all these years for the cause of her being canonized a saint," the 60-year-old priest said.

• Mother Teresa to be made a saint in September
• Mother Teresa to be made a saint of the Catholic Church

From Winnipeg to Rome

Although the Winnipeg priest will be in Rome for the ceremony, watched around the world, his faith was rooted in Manitoba.

Kolodiejchuk grew up on Burrows Avenuewith his sister and parents.In the late 1970s,Kolodiejchuk studiedatSt. Vladimir's College in Roblin, Man.He furthered his education at theUniversity of Winnipeg andSt. Paul's College at the University of Manitoba.

Kolodiejchukmet Mother Teresa for the first time afterhis sister joined the Missionaries of Charity Sisters in 1976. In his early twenties, hetravelled to Rome with his parents to see his sister. During a mass, Mother Teresa pinned a cross over the heart of one of the priests.

"After the mass, when we were saying goodbye, she said, 'I want to pin a cross on you.' I was so shocked I didn't say anything. I just walked out the door. Then we had to leave to go back home to Winnipeg," Kolodiejchuk said.

Years later, Kolodiejchuk was ordained a priest. He travels between the Missionaries of Charity Fathers houses in Rome and Tijuana, Mexico.

The Winnipeg-born priest has sincebeen in the presence of Mother Teresa dozens of times.

"She was very maternal, very motherly, very ordinary,"Kolodiejchuk said.

The priest talked about meeting Mother Teresa in New York after a long flight.When they gotback to the convent, the sisters would serve tea and coffee with biscuits.

"Rather than being waited on, Mother Teresa would get up after coming from Rome, back from a trip with a six hour difference and she herself would come into the parlor with a tray with tea and coffee and cookies," Kolodiejchuk recalled.

It was a simple moment, but it captured who Mother Teresa was,Kolodiejchuk said.

"How many people would give anything to see her, meet her just once,and here she was doing the most ordinary, motherly thing," he said, adding she was like a mother to everyone."Very simple. Very ordinary. She was a mother to me."

Soon after MotherTeresa died in 1997, Kolodiejchukwas named the postulator the main promoter of her cause for sainthood,uncovering and presenting evidence oftwo miracles after her death.

Miracles documented

Kolodiejchuk's job was to collect the evidence of twoconfirmed miracles.

"I gathered 35,000 pages in 81 volumes 113witnesses who answered a series of 263 questions. Seventeen volumes ended up being the witness material," he said.

Thefirst miracleinvolved an Indian woman in Calcutta who had a massive tumour in her abdomen that Kolodiejchuk saidwas roughly the size of a woman six months pregnant. Doctors told the woman nothing could be done for her.

On Sept. 5, 1998, exactly a year after Mother Teresa's death, a locket containing her picture was placed on the woman's stomach and within daysthe womanwas healed.

The second miracle was in 2008 when a Brazilian man had hydrocephaly, a bacteria infection on the brain with abscesses. He was in excruciating pain and went into a coma. The manwas near death and in an operating room but before the doctor began operatingthe man woke upand was healed,Kolodiejchuksaid.

Pope Francis acknowledged the second miracle last year, clearing the way for Mother Teresa's canonization as a saint.

Mother Teresa's canonization is not just important for the Catholic Church, but for the whole world, Kolodiejchuk said.

He said when Mother Teresa is declared a saint, the Pope will say that the nun is in heaven.

"She intercedes for us, that she didn't do the miracles, God did the miracles at her request because of her prayer and intercession," Kolodiejchuk said. "And lastly, she is an example to all us. In secular terms, she is a Christian hero."

The humble nun also haspopularity outside of the church and wasawarded the Nobel Peace Prize.Kolodiejchuk said many people see her as synonymous with goodness and kindness.

'A special love for Canada and for Winnipeg'

Although the priest travels the world,Kolodiejchuk said heloves Winnipeg and misses his mother and friends.

"I have a special love for Canada and for Winnipeg. Sometimes I feel more Canadian outside of Canada than when I was living there," he said.

"I love Winnipeg, that's where my family and friends are. And I love watching a hockey game. I love going back to the Peg when I have the chance."

Kolodiejchuk was in Winnipeg in 2013 to visit his mother and plans to come back in a couple years.

He said he knows his mother, and millions of Catholics around the world, will be watching the canonization ceremony.

"I have such a feeling of gratitude that I was able to see this through to the end, that it is happening. It has been an honour to be so directly involved."