Sunday, October 19, 2008

SAINT ALPHONSA - FIRST INDIAN WOMAN SAINT

Saint Alphonsa Muttathupadathu (Malayalam: അല്ഫോന്‍സാ മുട്ടത്തുപാടത്ത്; Alphonsa dell’Immacolata Concezione; 19 August 1910 – 28 July 1946) is a Catholic Saint, the first woman of Indian origin to be canonized as a saint by the Church and the first canonized saint of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church.

Alphonsamma, as she was locally known, had a poor, difficult childhood and experienced early loss and suffering. She joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation, and through them completed schooling and made her permanent vows in 1936. She taught school for years but was plagued by illness.

Claims of her intervention began almost immediately upon her death, and often involved the children in the convent school where she had taught. The cause of Sister Alphonsa began on 2 December 1953 in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Palai and she was declared a Servant of God. She was declared Venerable on 9 July 1985 by Pope John Paul II. Her beatification was declared 8 February 1986 by Pope John Paul II at
Kottayam.
Hundreds of miraculous cures are claimed for her intervention, many of them involving straightening of clubbed feet, possibly because of her having lived with deformed feet herself. Two of these cases were submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints as proof of her miraculous intervention. The continuing cures are chronicled in the magazine PassionFlower.
Last Sunday, 12 October 2008, Pope Benedict XVI announced her canonization at a ceremony at St Peter's Square.

(Source---Wikipedia)

8 comments:

Mel said...

Interesting... I'm not Catholic, so I never hear these stories, and when I do I find them to be quite fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

God bless you!

In Christ,
Mel

FCB said...

Hi Joseph,
I'm like Mel in that I never here these stories but for a 'Book of The Martyrs' I have that list many lives given in sacrifice to God.
Thanks for these insights,
God Bless,
Fred

ramesh sadasivam said...

Hello Sir,

I think I've an read an article about her in some Tamil magazine. I read that she was very beautiful and so many wanted to marry her. Since she wanted to dedicate her life to the service of the Lord, she distorted her own face. Is she the one?

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hi Ramesh :)

Many thanks for your query.

There is some mistake. If you go to wikipedia and type Sister Alphonsa you will get her complete life history.

Best wishes :)

Mark D. said...

Thanks for sharing this information -- and congratulations on the canonization! God willing, soon there will be many more great Indian saints recognized by the Church for their devotion to the Gospel and their service to their fellow human beings.

Cheers!

ramesh sadasivam said...

Hello Sir,

May be I was remembering some other story. I'll sure check for Sister Alphonsa's story in Wikipedia. Thank you Sir. :)

Best wishes.

Leo said...

Most interesting. I did not know this.

venuss66 said...

Thank you for this beautiful information.