Who was Sister Alphonsa?

Till a few days back, very few people outside Kerala would have heard of Sister Alphonsa. But now, almost 100 years after her birth, she will be canonised by the Vatican.

The Sister became the blessed Alphonsa after her beatification in Kottayam in 1986 by Pope John Paul II; and once a miracle was attributed to her, the path to sainthood was clear.

Sister's short life - she died at the age of 36 - was full of physical suffering. Her followers believe that she performed miracles during her lifetime, but it was really after her death that her movement towards sainthood gathered momentum.

She was buried at Bharananganam, at a graveyard that was later turned into a chapel. And the faithful truly believe that if they pray here, she will intercede on their behalf.

In the run up to Sister Alphonsa's canonisation, crowds have been pouring in to this shrine. They believe the woman buried here can intercede with God and they attribute miracles to her help.

But who is this woman who can inspire such devotion and faith?

The young Anna, known to her family as Annakutty, lost her mother within weeks of her birth in 1910. She was brought up at the affluent family home of her maternal aunt.

The family wanted her married but she was so determined to take up a life of spirituality that she reportedly burnt herself deliberately to stop any marriage proposal from bearing fruit.

"Ultimately, to withstand the pressure so exerted on her from her aunt and uncle, she decided to disfigure herself by putting her foot in the fire," said Pauly Mathew Murichen, Sister Alphonsa's grand nephew.

She joined the Franciscan Clarist order in Bharananganam and Annakutty became Sister Alphonsa.

The Sister studied in a convent as a child. She came here to live when she joined the congregation. And she stayed there until her death in 1946. Her room seems to have become a pilgrimage centre by itself.

Sister Alphonsa was a much loved teacher and the proud members of her congregation point out that it was students -- in her lifetime and after her death -- who began to feel there was something extra special about her.

"Students first identified her virtue. They come near to the tomb and prayed and the students get a lot of blessings from heaven," said Sister Jyothish, from Franciscan Clarist Congregation.

"Her grace gives us strength to study. She is very kind," said Akhil, a student.

People are so devoted to her that a family at the shrine believes they own the life of their young daughter to Alphonsa.

"This is my daughter, now she is studying in Class IX. Just after her birth she began to vomit the blood. The doctor told me there is no chance to live. Just after we decided to give the name Alphonsa, she got cured within minutes and stopped vomiting blood," said K P Varghese, the father.

This is a time when India is receiving criticism for attacks on Christians. It is also a time when the Catholic church has an Indian woman saint for the very first time. Her message was that of saints -- one of peace.

Alphonsa dedicated herself to Jesus at age 7

Kerala nun Sister Alphonsa, who at the age of seven had dedicated herself to serving Jesus Christ, calling him ‘my divine Spouse’, was greatly disturbed when her family decided to get her married at 13.

She prayed fervently and even contemplated disfiguring herself to escape the torment, according to a biography of her prepared by the Vatican ahead of her canonisation Sunday.

Following is the biography of Sister Alphonsa prepared by the Vatican:

‘Blessed ALPHONSA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION was born in Kudamalur, the Arpookara region, in the diocese of Changanacherry, India, on the 19th of August 1910, of the ancient and noble family of Muttathupadathu.

From her birth, the life of the Blessed was marked by the cross, which would be progressively revealed to her as the royal way to conform herself to Christ. Her mother, Maria Puthukari, gave birth to her prematurely, in her eight month of pregnancy, as a result of a fright she received when, during the sleep, a snake wrapped itself around her waist. Eight days later, the 28 of August, the child was baptised according to the Syro-Malabar rite by the Fr. Joseph Chackalayil, and she received the name Annakutty, a diminutive of Anne. She was the last of five children.

Her mother died three months later. Annakutty passed her early infancy in the home of her grandparents in Elumparambil. There she lived a particularly happy time because of her human and Christian formation, during which the first seeds of a vocation flowered. Her grand-mother, a pious and charitable woman, communicated the joy of the faith, love for prayer and a surge of charity towards the poor to her. At five years of age the child already knew how to lead, with a totally childish enthusiasm, the evening prayer of the family gathered, in accordance with the Syro-Malabar custom, in the ‘prayer room’.

Annakutty received the Eucharistic bread for the first time on the 11 of November 1917. She used to say to her friends: ‘Do you know why I am so particularly happy today? It is because I have Jesus in my heart!’. In a letter to her spiritual father, on the 30 of November 1943, she confided the following: ‘Already from the age of seven I was no longer mine. I was totally dedicated to my divine Spouse. Your reverence knows it well’.

In the same year of 1917 she began to attend the elementary school of Thonnankuzhy, where she also established a sincere friendship with the Hindu children. When the first school cycle ended in 1920, the time had come to transfer to Muttuchira, to the house of her aunt Anna Murickal, to whom her mother, before she died, had entrusted her as her adoptive mother.

Her aunt was a severe and demanding woman, at times despotic and violent in demanding obedience from Annakutty in her every minimal disposition or desire. Assiduous in her religious practice, she accompanied her niece, but did not share the young girl’s friendship with the Carmelites of the close-by Monastery or her long periods of prayer at the foot of the altar. She was, in fact, determined to procure an advantageous marriage for Annakutty, obstructing the clear signs of her religious vocation.

The virtue of the Blessed was manifested in accepting this severe and rigid education as a path of humility and patience for the love of Christ, and tenaciously resisted the reiterated attempts at engagement to which the aunt tried to oblige her. Annakutty, in order to get out from under a commitment to marriage, reached the point of voluntarily causing herself a grave burn by putting her foot into a heap of burning embers. ‘My marriage was arranged when I was thirteen years old. What had I to do to avoid it? I prayed all that night… then an idea came tome. If my body were a little disfigured no one would want me! … O, how I suffered! I offered all for my great intention’.

The proposal to defile her singular beauty did not fully succeed in freeing her from the attentions of suitors. During the following years the Blessed had to defend her vocation, even during the year of probation when an attempt to give her in marriage, with the complicity of the Mistress of Formation herself, was made. ‘O, the vocation which I received! A gift of my good God!…. God saw the pain of my soul in those days. God distanced the difficulties and established me in this religious state’.

It was Fr. James Muricken, her confessor, who directed her towards Franciscan spirituality and put her in contact with the Congregation of the Franciscan Clarists. Annakutty entered their college in Bharananganam in the diocese of Palai, to attend seventh class, as an intern student, on the 24th of May 1927. The following year, on the 2nd of August 1928, Annakutty began her postulancy, taking the name of Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception in honour of St. Alphonsus Liguori, whose feast it was that day. She was clothed in the religious habit on the 19th of May 1930, during the first pastoral visit made to Bharananganam by the Bishop, Msgr. James Kalacherry.

The period 1930-1935 was characterised by grave illness and moral suffering. She could teach the children in the school at Vakakkad only during the scholastic year 1932. Then, because of her weakness, she carried out the duties of assistant-teacher and catechist in the parish. She was engaged also as secretary, especially to write official letters because of her beautiful script.

The canonical novitiate was introduced into the Congregation of the Franciscan Clarists in 1934. Though wishing to enter immediately, the Blessed was only admitted on the 12th of August 1935 because of her ill health. About one week after the beginning of her novitiate, she had a haemorrhage from the nose and eyes and a profound organic wasting and purulent wounds on her legs. The illness deteriorated, to such a point that the worst was feared.

Heaven came to the rescue of the holy novice. During a novena to The Servant of God Fr. Kuriakose Elia Chavara - a Carmelite who today is a Blessed-she wasmiraculously and instantaneously cured.

Having restarted her novitiate, she wrote the following proposals in her spiritual diary: ‘I do not wish to act or speak according to my inclinations. Every time I fail, I will do penance… I want to be careful never to reject anyone. I will only speak sweet words to others. I want to control my eyes with rigour. I will ask pardon of the Lord for every little failure and I will atone for it through penance. No matter what my sufferings may be, I will never complain and if I have to undergo any humiliation, I will seek refuge in the Sacred Heart of Jesus’.

The 12th of August 1936, the feast of St. Clare, the day of her perpetual profession, was a day of inexpressible spiritual joy. She had realised her desire, guarded for a long time in her heart and confided to her sister Elizabeth when she was only 12 years old: ‘Jesus is my only Spouse, and none other’.

Jesus, however, wished to lead His spouse to perfection through a life of suffering. ‘I made my perpetual profession on the 12th of August 1936 and came here to Bharanganam on the following 14th. From that time, it seems, I was entrusted with a part of the cross of Christ. There are abundant occasions of suffering… I have a great desire to suffer with joy. It seems that my Spouse wishes to fulfil this desire’.

Painful illnesses followed each other: typhoid fever, double pneumonia, and, the most serious of all, a dramatic nervous shock, the result of a fright on seeing a thief during the night of the 18th of October 1940. Her state of psychic incapacity lasted for about a year, during which she was unable to read or write.

In every situation, Sister Alphonsa always maintained a great reservation and charitable attitude towards the Sisters, silently undergoing her sufferings. In 1945 she had a violent outbreak of illness. A tumour, which had spread throughout her organs, transformed her final year of life into a continuous agony. Gastroenteritis and liver problems caused violent convulsions and vomiting up to forty times a day: ‘I feel that the Lord has destined me to be an oblation, a sacrifice of suffering… I consider a day in which I have not suffered as a day lost to me’.

With this attitude of a victim for the love of the Lord, happy until the final moment and with a smile of innocence always on her lips, Sister Alphonsa quietly and joyfully brought her earthly journey to a close in the convent of the Franciscan Clarists at Bharananganam at 12.30 on the 28th July 1946, leaving behind the memory of a Sister full of love and a saint.

Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception Muttathupadathu was proclaimed Blessed by Pope John Paul II in Kottayam, India, on the 8th of February 1986.

With today’s Canonisation, the Church in India presents its first Saint to the veneration of the faithful of the whole world. Faithful from every part of the world have come together in a single act of thanksgiving to God in her name and in a sign of the great oriental and western traditions, Roman and Malabar, which Sr. Alphonsa lived and harmonised in her saintly life.

My aunt Annakutty

On the eve of canonisation, the nephew Kurian C. Muttathupadam recalls the remarkable life of his aunt, who died 62 years ago

I need to prove my right to address Annakutty as my aunt. I remember reading through a manuscript that was in the possession of my father, Cherian Vaidyan. He had inherited this historical record from his grand uncle Fr. Joseph Muttathupadam. According to the facts in that parchment, the first Raja of Chembakassery, Mahipalarajendran, had brought from outside his kingdom four Christian families — Chakkumkal, Mukkumkal, Karimbali and Muttathupadam. These families were to conduct religious service in the newly constructed Catholic Church, which he had built in Kudamalloor village, within the jurisdiction of his kingdom, in the first half of 12th century.

These four families were permitted to settle down among the non-Christians in the Chembakassery kingdom. Avira Chacko headed the Muttathupadam family. He was given the duty of supervising the religious services in the church.

Aymanam village, a few kilometres from the palace and within the jurisdiction of the Chembakassery kingdom, was the place where Avira Chacko initially settled down with his family. Since members of the Muttathupadam family were accomplished in martial arts and expert in Ayurveda, the king frequently used their services. As the proximity of the physicians to the palace became a recurring need, in the first half of the 18th century, one of the descendants of Avira Chacko, Eppan Vaidyan, a physician proficient in the treatment of the eyes, was allowed to settle down on the northern bank of the tributary of the Meenachil river that flowed in front of the Chembakassery Palace. Eppan’s sons were Cherian (Kochukunju Vaidyan) and Joseph. Joseph became a priest, an ardent missionary of his time, an able administrator, a voracious reader and a prolific speaker among his contemporaries.

The other son, Kochukunju Vaidyan, had three sons — Kuttan Vaidyan, Kunjikuttan and Chacko Vaidyan. Kuttan Vaidyan or Joseph, married Mary of Puthukari in Muttuchira, had three daughters, Elizabeth, Thresia and Annakutty (Alphonsa) and a son, Eppachan. Eppachan died when he was 10.

Kunjikuttan, younger brother of Kuttan Vaidyan, died in his 30s. The youngest brother of Kuttan Vaidyan, Chako Vaidyan, had only one son, Cherian and one daughter, Elizabeth. If Annakutty were to call someone from her father’s line her brother that was only her cousin Cherian. He was one year younger to Annakutty. As one of the seven children of Cherian Vaidyan Muttathupadam, you can now guess my right to call Annakutty my aunt. She being one year senior to my father and in accordance with the prevalent custom in our place, I call her "Peramma"; so I am her nephew.

Nun so blessed

Tomorrow would be a great day for the Church in India, and for the Muttathupadam family of Kerala. A daughter of the family, Alphonsa, will become the first Indian saint of the Catholic Church.

Being the first Indian woman to be accorded the title and status of a saint by the Catholic Church, it is a matter of privilege and pride not only for the Muttathupadam family but also for the whole ecclesiastical community of our country. My aunt now belongs to a larger family and is going to be projected by the Church as the model and example of the heroic practice of Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity.

I was yet a four-year-old boy when aunt Annakutty left for her heavenly home. I never had the privilege of personally meeting this saintly aunt of mine. My knowledge about her has come to me from my grandparents and parents. Remembrance of Alphonsa became significant in the family only after her death. When schoolchildren visited her tomb at Bharananganam to seek her intercession with God for their success in examinations and when she interceded for them, they spoke about her closeness to God, which he had granted to her because of her faithfulness to him. Elders took up the practice of seeking her intercession in matters material and spiritual. Her name and fame had already crossed the boundaries of Kerala to reach other parts of India and even the whole world.

I was eight when I heard from my grandfather about the miracles that used to take place at Bharananganam due to the intercession of Alphonsa. On his return from his usual eye treatment itineraries in the Meenachil area, I vividly remember how he used to narrate to the family the devotion and gratitude with which people from far and near approached the tomb of aunt Annakutty to seek her help in obtaining favours from God.

Grandma Annamma, hailing from an Ayurvedic vaid’s family Chakala in Changanacherry, continued to narrate many things to us about our saintly aunt. She had witnessed Annakutty’s infancy; the charity with which Murical Peramma, Annakutty’s maternal aunt, had taken her home after the death of her mother, three months after her birth; her return to Arpookara as a smart little girl, ready to go to the local school. Grandma would tell us about the school-going Annakutty, treading the dusty road of Arpookara village.

Early signs

Our grandma would highlight for us the virtue of forgiveness that shined forth in aunt Annakutty when she forgave the boy, who had pushed her down from a ladder-fence that she used to cross on her way to the government school at Arpookara. She even desisted from reporting the matter to the teachers of the school. Grandma would attribute this mode of living to the influence, the two priests from the Muttathupadam family, had on the rest of the family members. They were Fr. Joseph Muttathupadam, Annakutty’s granduncle and Fr. Emmanuel Muttathupadam TOCD (popularly known as Kanimusa Manikattanar,) an uncle of Annakutty, a scripture scholar and the first priest to translate into Malayalam the New Testament portion of The Bible and parts of the Old Testament from the Syriac language.

She had completed her studies up to class III at the government school at Thonnamkuzhy, Arpookara. She was then 10 years old. She was privileged to spend the most impressionable years of her life in the Muttathupadam family itself.

After having absorbed many Christian values here, she moved out of this village to Murican family at Muttuchira through the process of an informal adoption. Her maternal aunt, who had nurtured her in her infancy, had no girl child and was in need of one. This need was presented to the father of Annakutty, who reluctantly consented to the idea.

Annakutty continued her studies at Muttuchira. When she completed her 13th year, she burnt her feet in the paddy-husk-incinerator at the Muricans. As the news of the burning of the feet of Annakutty reached her father, he, assisted by Pazhoor Autha, a neighbour and family friend, left for Muttuchira in a country boat to bring her home for treatment. It was my grandparents, who took over the situation and initiated the treatment by puncturing the swollen skin on her feet to let the puss ooze out and then to clean the wound with ayurvedic concoctions made at home. Annakutty had then told my grandma that this incident took place while she was playing hide and seek with her cousins at the Muricans. After this incident, people at Muttathupadam wondered how a marriage proposal could now come for a girl of 13. Annakutty had kept as a guarded secret the real reason for this daring act of burning her feet until she was 20.

Daring sacrifice

When she was 18, Annakutty joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation at Bharananganam as an aspirant for religious life. At 20, she became a nun in the same congregation. It was then that she revealed to her spiritual director the real reason for burning her feet. She had done so to reject the marriage proposals that haunted her.

After her death in July 1946 at the Franciscan Clarist Convent, Bharananganam, when her cause was taken up for beatification in December 1953, the ‘devil’s advocate’ at the Vatican argued that the attempt by the servant of God Alphonsa to burn her feet at the age of 13 was un-Christian. Consequently, the whole case of her beatification was shelved for a couple of years. But, more research was done and new arguments were brought forward that her action could also be read as a heroic attempt to reject marriage for the sake of Kingdom of God and to accept another state of perfection, that is, the religious life.

April 13, 1957, was one of the happiest days in the life of my father, Cherian Vaidyan. He was present in the vice-postulator’s office in Bharananganam when the tomb of his cousin Annakutty was opened for the first time for the medico-ecclesiastical examination of her mortal remains.

He was told by the then vice-postulator Fr. Moothedath that even 11 years after her death, her mortal remains were blessed with many miraculous signs that could be accepted as signs of her holiness: the part of her religious habit from neck to the knee was intact, possibly indicating the life of modesty and purity that she lived. Though the flesh had been disintegrated totally, the heart remained intact but in a dried up state. Day in and day out she had loved her Lord with her whole heart. The skeleton remained undamaged. The veil on the head and her trimmed hair underneath it seemed fresh; they protruded out on the skull-bone. A rose that was fixed on her clasped palms at the funeral was still there, though in a dried form. Her mortal remains were then encased in a steel coffin and were reburied in the same tomb.

Tomorrow, when one of their daughters is being raised to the honours of the altar, is a great day for members of the Muttathupadam family. The Church in India, with its multi-cultural and ritual traditions, rejoice together as a family when, for the first time, one of her members is being declared a Saint by the Head of the Universal Church, Pope Benedict XVI.

Alphonsa challenges the contemporary society on various counts. Those who contemplate suicide as a solution to their problems should turn to this saintly nun to learn from her the ways of facing suffering and sickness, failure and frustration. "Act with faith in God and in the fellow human beings" is the advice Alphonsa gives to the members of society, which is clogged up in purely material matters. The panacea she prescribes for the psychological and sociological deficiencies in contemporary society is to uphold the dignity of every human being.

Alphonsa was a person, who practised love in its most pure form, spending herself for others, in imitation of her guru and God-incarnate, Jesus Christ. Here was a person who challenged the wealthy and the greedy of the world with her total rejection of and complete detachment from material possessions and indicated to them the means to obtain peace and joy through a life of moderation and self-discipline.

Stories of aunt Annakutty’s life, suffering and death, told and retold time and again in the family, were a source of encouragement for those of us who looked forward to follow Jesus closely.

St. Alphonsa: The Life And Message of the Saint From India

The newest Saint of India,Alphonsa,reveals that in the Cross the meaninglessness of suffering can give way to a profound experience of the love of God and neighbor in our daily lives.

GORAKHPUR,India (Catholic Online) - Blessed Alphonsa will be canonized on the 12th October in Rome. She is a sign of the deep roots and the maturation of the Christian faith in India. Christianity in India traces its origin back to the Apostle Thomas. The Christian faith, received and nurtured in India through ancient and modern stages, witnesses to the world today in the Catholic tri-ritual communion of the Syro-Malabar church, Syro-Malankara Church and the Latin Church (otherwise popularly called rites) and in the diverse Orthodox and Protestant churches and communities. Alphonsa belonged to the Syro-Malabar church which, like its Catholic and non-Catholic counterparts, is known for its extraordinary socio-cultural proximity to Hinduism. Alphonsa herself had as her best class companion a Hindu girl named Laxmikutty. Unlike the Semitic and western churches, the Church in India, especially of the Thomas Christian tradition, holds a unique place for its interreligious, multi-cultural and socio-political interactions and mutual relationships. For this reason, when the Universal Church raises Alphonsa to the veneration at the altar by officially declaring her as a person who shares in the communion of saints, she also presents before today’s world a shining example of how the mutual interaction of the apostolic vitality of a church which is intermingled with the local cultures can lead to the blossoming of Christian dignity and sanctity. This should be an assurance and consolation, not only for Christians, but also for people of other faiths.

This article is an attempt to focus on the centrality of Blessed Alphonsa's relationship to Jesus Christ and the experience of His presence in her daily life. For instance, Alphonsa is popularly known as a person who loved and invited loving suffering. She is called the “Little Flower” (St. Therese of Child Jesus) of India. Both of these claims draw our attention to the fundamental reality and truth of Jesus Christ as the only Son of God and the unique Savior of the whole creation. She was a Franciscan Clarist nun. Her life was confined within the four walls of the FCC Convent at Bharananganam. It was at the same time a tale of docility to God, to her fellow sisters, to her spiritual master, to her relatives and to the children around in the school. Although confined externally, it is this child like docility which helped others feel and discover the mystery of the grace of sanctity at work in her. In this context, the funeral sermon preached by her spiritual father Romulus of happy memory is a classical example of spiritual direction and a worthy paradigm for the profession of the dignity of a spiritual master. It is the first official step in fact exposing the hidden sanctity of Alphonsa. Fr. Romulus preached, ““with the most profound conviction in my heart and as one who has known this religious very intimately, I affirm that we are now participating in the last rites of a saintly person. If the world had realized her intrinsic worth, unprecedented crowds including hundreds of priests and bishops from all over India would have assembled here. They would have rushed and clamored for even a glimpse of this body and for some precious relic or token of this person. I assure you, that as far as human judgment can be relied on, this young nun was not much less saintly than the Little Flower of Lisieux.”

I shall now try to sketch a brief biographical note to present her background.

Govt. to issue coin in honour of Sister Alphonsa

The government on Saturday said it has decided to issue a commemorative coin in the honour of Sister Alphonsa, who will be canonized as a saint by the Pope tomorrow in the Vatican City.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced that the coin will be released on August 19, 2009 in Kerala.

Sister Alphonsa is the first Indian who will be canonized as a saint by the catholic church, an official release said.

Born in 1910, she belonged to the poor Franciscan Clarist Congregation in Kerala. Her centenary year will commence on August 19, 2009 and will be celebrated for a year, it added.

Sister Alphonsa of Kottayam

"The Catholic Church in India will have its first woman saint on October 12 when Pope Benedict XVI canonises Sister Alphonsa of Kottayam, Kerala, 62 years after she died.

Till now, all eyes had been on Mother Teresa’s sainthood process. Sister Alphonsa’s name came up suddenly in March this year. It was then realised that the Kerala nun had been in line for sainthood long before Mother Teresa died in 1997.

The sainthood will be announced at a ceremony at the Vatican for which preparations are on in full swing.

Born Anna Muttathupadathu in 1910 in Kudamaloor, near Kottayam, Sister Alphonsa lost her mother at an early age and was brought up by her maternal aunt. The family wanted to marry young Anna off, but she was keen on following the religious path. She assumed the name, Alphonsa, after joining the Franciscan Clarist convent in Bharananganam in 1927.

Sister Alphonsa died when she was 36 after a prolonged illness and a life of immense suffering. She had accidentally stepped on burning embers and badly burnt her feet and legs up to her knees. But the incident also earned her a reprieve from the marriage. After joining the convent, she had bouts of haemorrhage, malaria, pneumonia and even tuberculosis and was mostly confined to bed.

Her beatification was ordained by Pope John Paul II in February 1986. In June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI authorized her canonization after he approved a miracle attributed to her. After lengthy deliberations, the Vatican identified the healing of a one-year-old boy in Kerala, Jinil, who could not walk because of a congenital disability. Jinil began walking the day his parents took him to Sister Alphonsa’s tomb for prayers. Sister Alphonsa will be the second Christian saint from India after Gonsalo Garcia and the first woman."

From The News Tribune:
"Christian leaders hailed the move to canonize Sister Alphonsa, a nun from southern India, saying it would provide solace to Christians who have been victims of violent attacks by Hindu mobs in eastern and southern India in recent months.

The Vatican's canonization procedures require that two miracles be attributed to the candidate. After the church confirms one miracle, the person is beatified - and put on the road to sainthood.

In 1986, the church credited Sister Alphonsa with healing a boy with a club foot, said Dominic Vechor, chancellor of the Palai Diocese in Kerala.

The second miracle attributed to the nun, Vechor said, also involved healing the club foot of a baby boy, Jinil Shahji. Shahji, now 10 years old, has traveled to Rome with his family to watch Sunday's ceremony, Vechor said.

It was through her own feet that Sister Alphonsa, who was born in the southern Indian state of Kerala in 1910, expressed her religious devotion. According to a Vatican biography, she stepped on hot coals to burn and disfigure her feet to escape an arranged marriage and become a nun."

From The Australia:
"Many Indian clergy and pilgrims are expected to attend the special mass at the Vatican for Alphonsa Muttathupadathu, who died in 1946, aged 36.

She is the second Indian to be elevated to sainthood. The first, 16th-century martyr Gonsalo Garcia, was canonised in 1862. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who died in 1997, was beatified in 2003 - the first step to sainthood.

Christians account for 2.3per cent of India's billion-plus, mostly Hindu, population."

From Fox News:
"Christian leaders hailed the move to canonize Sister Alphonsa, a nun from southern India, saying it would provide solace to Christians who have been victims of violent attacks by Hindu mobs in eastern and southern India in recent months.

"We can draw certain spiritual consolation from her canonization. This means we have one more saint in heaven who is from India and whom we can approach to intercede," said Dominic Emmanuel, a spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India."