Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Cochin (Agenzia Fides) - Blessed Alfonsa, a sister from Kerala, will be India's first Saint. Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree for canonisation on June 1. Catholics in Kerala have welcomed the news which spread quickly across the country.
Sr Alfonsa was born in a village in Kottayam (Kerala) in 1910. She was baptised Anna Muttathupadam in the Syro-Malabar rite. Her parents died while she was still a child and she was brought up by her grandmother and an aunt. She felt drawn to the religious life and at the age of 17 in 1927 entered the Malabar Poor Clares Congregation at Bharananganam as a novice and made her perpetual vows in 1936. She was given the task of teaching but had to stop because of poor health. She suffered in silence offering her pain and illness to the Lord in 1945 and she died at the age of 36 in 1946. In her suffering she used to say: “I feel the Lord wants me to be an oblation, a sacrifice of suffering … a day without suffering is a day lost for me”.
Her tomb is visited by Christians, Hindus and Muslims. Sr Alfonsa was beatified in February 1986 by Pope John Paul II. Today she is a point of reference for all consecrated persons in India. Her example of unswerving faith, humility, strength, dedicated to prayer is often placed along side that of Mother Teresa di Calcutta. Sr Alfonsa is considered a concrete, visible example of how the Christian faith is deeply rooted in India and an integral part of the nation's religious heritage. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 12/6/2007 righe 27 parole 276)
