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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS