VATICAN CITY: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Nobel laureate who dedicated her life to helping the poorest of the poor, will be made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Friday.

Pope Francis has cleared the way for her sainthood by approving a decree recognising a miracle attributed to her intercession with God.

Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 at the age of 87, was beatified in 2003 by the late Pope John Paul after the Vatican said an Indian woman's prayers to the nun rid her of an incurable tumor. Beatification, which requires one miracle, is the last step before sainthood.

The second miracle attributed to the intercession of Mother Teresa, which is required for canonisation, involved the inexplicable healing of a Brazilian man who was suffering from a multiple brain tumours, according to Catholic media reports.

Relatives prayed to Mother Teresa and he recovered, leaving doctors at a loss to explain how.

Known as the “saint of the gutters”, the diminutive nun is expected to be canonised in early September. It was not clear if the ceremony would take place in Rome or if the pope would travel to India to preside over it.

Mother Teresa was born Anjez Gonxhe Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in Macedonia in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire.

She founded the Missionaries of Charity to help the poor on the streets of Calcutta and the religious order later spread throughout the world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.