The first ever Indian woman Saint

It was a Sunday that will remain forever etched in the memories of Indian Christians. Bells in Catholic churches across Kerala tolled simultaneously as Pope Benedict XI announced the canonization of Sister Alphonsa in Vatican City on Sunday afternoon, heralding the first ever Indian woman saint.Braving incessant rains, thousands of believers thronged the nun’s tomb at the Bharananganam church in Kottayam. The tomb, according to reports, has been the source of several instances of miraculous healings of people suffering from defects in their legs. ‘‘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 are lined with posters of the nun and the church and the convent in which she lived wore a festive look.Present in the crowd was 76-year-old Lillikutty, whose grandmother’s younger sister was the Mother Superior of the Franciscan Clarist Convent when Saint Alphonsa joined the order. Lillikutty, who used to visit Sister Alphonsa in the convent, still preserves a handkerchief which the nun had given her. ‘‘Once, when I started developing weakness in my left leg, I prayed with the handkerchief and I was cured,’’ Lillikutty reminisces.The rituals to celebrate the occasion began in the morning with special masses. Every place associated with the nun — whether the place where she was born in Kudamaloor in Kottayam, the St Mary’s Church where she was baptized, the Murikkan residence where she spent her early years and the convent in Bharananganam — witnessed large turnout of people with many of them shedding tears of joy. A procession carrying her portrait arrived at the Alphonsa Chapel after making rounds of Bharananganam and culminated in a mass at 1 pm. Half-an-hour later, the Church bells rang for 15 minutes as thousands witnessed the canonization ceremony telecast live on TV. In the morning, a portrait of the nun was unveiled in her home in Kudamaloor, while in Thrissur, nuns donated blood to mark the occasion.The canonization comes at a time when the church and Christians — who make barely 2% of India’s billion plus population — are facing attacks in Orissa, Karnataka and even Kerala over allegations of forced conversions. The communal divide turned particularly vicious in Orissa since the murder of VHP leader, Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, in August, while he was campaigning against proselytization. ‘‘Sister Alphonsa cared for nothing but religion. That is our message, too. Whatever the extent of suffering, Christians will live up to the Gospel,’’ said Paul Thelakat, spokesperson of the Syro Malabar church. Born A E Annakutty in August 1910, Sister Alphonsa had deliberately disfigured herself by burning her legs up to her knees to ward off marriage proposals, and died at the age of 36 in 1946 after prolonged illness and a life of immense physical suffering. She was beatified on February 8, 1986, by Pope John Paul II at the Nehru Stadium in Kottayam. The only other Indian to be elevated as saint before her was Gonsalo Garcia, but his father was Portuguese. Albanian-born Mother Teresa, who served the destitute in Kolkata, was beatified in 2003, the first step to her canonization.The main celebration at Bharananganam will be held on November 9, and is expected to attract more than one lakh people. The event will be presided over by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, head of the Congregation of Oriental Churches in the Vatican, and former president APJ Abdul Kalam.