A Roman Catholic nun was to be made India’s first female saint by Pope Benedict XVI in a televised ceremony yesterday.
Thousands of visitors to the town of Bharananganam in Kerala state offered special prayers ahead of the canonization of Sister Alphonsa Muttathupadathu, who died in 1946 at the age of 36.
“I have been coming here for the past 20 years to seek blessings from her for my family, especially for my children’s studies,” government official V.J Joseph said.
PHOTO: AFP
“Today is an important day as the holy Church is declaring her a saint,” said Joseph, who came with his wife and two children.
Sister Alphonsa is credited with curing illness and disease after her death in 1946, with the Vatican approving the reported miracle cure of Genil Joseph, a congenitally deformed child, in 1999.
Joseph was to be one of hundreds of pilgrims and Church and state officials present at the Vatican yesterday when the pope was to announce the canonization in a special ceremony.
Braving a heavy drizzle, thousands poured into Sister Alphonsa’s church in the town of Bharananganam from 4am, when mass began in the regional Malayalam language.
“We always thought she was someone special, we felt she had an aura about her,” said Sister Grace Kalriparambil, 77, who knew Sister Alphonsa.
The roads of the small town were lined with posters of Sister Alphonsa and the church and convent where she lived as a nun wore a festive look.
Special masses are also being held in Catholic churches across Kerala, where St. Thomas, one of the 12 apostles, is believed to have arrived in 52 AD, bringing Christianity to India, a secular country with a dominant Hindu population.
The canonization comes at a time when Christians, who make up barely 2 percent of India’s billion-plus population, have come under attack in parts of the country, as long-running tensions over religious conversions burst into the open again.
The killing of a Hindu leader in eastern Orissa state sparked some of the worst anti-Christian riots in decades, killing about 35 people and damaging dozens of churches.
“At a time when evil is so widespread, it is good to have something like this to keep our spirits up,” Sister Grace said.
The pope was due to declare Sister Alphonsa a saint at 1.30pm in a special ceremony at the Vatican, where dozens of Church and state officials and pilgrims from India were present.
Alphonsa will be India’s second saint after Gonsalo Garcia, of Portuguese parentage, who was canonized in 1862.
Alphonsa, who deliberately disfigured herself at a young age to ward off suitors and enter the convent, died at the age of 36. Her tomb became a pilgrimage site and she was credited with several miracles.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS