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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including