The timing could be coincidence — or it could be miraculous.

But an Indian priest is crediting Blessed Mother Teresa with a cure that, if verified, could tip her over the top to official sainthood:

The sainthood cause of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta could cross its last hurdle if the Vatican approves an allegedly miraculous cure a priest claims he experienced on the 10th anniversary of her death.

Salesian Father V.M. Thomas says Mother Teresa’s intercession was responsible for the disappearance of a half-inch kidney stone in his lower ureter, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. The stone disappeared in an unexplainable manner after Father Thomas celebrated Mass and prayed to Mother Teresa Sept. 5, the day before he was scheduled for surgery.

UCA News reported that Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati gave the agency a copy of the priest’s files and medical records and, according to the priest’s notes, the surgeon affirmed “the disappearance of the calculus (stone) was beyond medical explanation.”

Father Thomas, 56, was associated with Mother Teresa from 1979 until her death in 1997.

The priest had been suffering from severe abdominal pain since Feb. 13. Medical examinations in a Guwahati hospital revealed he had renal colic and calculi, and doctors advised him to take medicine to help dissolve the kidney stones. But recurring pains took him to at least four other hospitals elsewhere.

On July 26, surgeons in Guwahati advised surgery, but Father Thomas wanted to wait. On Aug. 27, he met doctors again after he said he was overcome with “excruciating” pain.

He was admitted to a hospital in Guwahati Sept. 4. Tests confirmed the presence of the stone, and doctors set Sept. 6 for its surgical removal.

Father Thomas said that on the morning of Sept. 5, before preparations for his surgery, his doctor allowed him to leave the hospital to celebrate Mass at Shishu Bhavan, a home for abandoned children Mother Teresa started in Guwahati. At the Mass, he asked those present to pray for him, especially through the intercession of Mother Teresa.

The priest later affirmed his belief that Mother Teresa’s miraculous intercession caused the stone to disappear.