http://www.thestar.com/article/516235
India gets its first female Catholic saint
Canonization comes in the wake of attacks on Indian Christians by Hindu majority
Oct 12, 2008
Muneeza Naqvi
Associated Press
NEW DELHI–The Vatican has given India its first female Catholic saint at a time
when Christians have
increasingly come under attack in the predominantly Hindu country.
Christian leaders hailed today's canonization of Sister Alphonsa, a nun from
southern India who died in 1946,
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," said Dominic
Emmanuel of the Catholic
Bishops' Conference of India. "This means we have one more saint in heaven who
is from India and whom we
can approach to intercede."
The worst clashes have been in the Kandhamal district of India's eastern state
of Orissa after a Hindu religious
leader was slain in August.
Police blamed Maoist rebels active in the area, but extremist Hindu groups
pointed the finger at Christian residents.
According to the state government, 32 people died in the ensuing violence, but
the bishops' conference puts the toll at 40 or more.
The process to declare Sister Alphonsa a saint began long before the recent
violence.
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.
Previously, the only Indian to have been made a Roman Catholic saint was
Gonsalo Garcia, who was canonized in 1862.
Mother Teresa, the Albanian-born nun who worked with the poor and destitute in
India, was beatified in 2003.
In 1986, the church credited Sister Alphonsa with healing a boy with a club
foot, according to Dominic Vechor, chancellor
of the Palai Diocese in Kerala.
The second miracle attributed to the nun also involved healing the club foot of
a baby boy, Jinil Shahji.
Shahji, now 10 years old, travelled to Rome with his family to watch today's
ceremony.
It was through her own feet that Sister Alphonsa, who was born in the southern
state of Kerala in 1910, expressed her religious devotion.
According to a Vatican biography, she stepped on hot coals, disfiguring her
feet to escape an arranged marriage and become a nun.
In Bharananganam, a small town in Kerala state where Sister Alphonsa lived and
worked in the Clarist Convent, hundreds of
devotees visit her white marble grave site to seek blessings and favours.
"She has been a very special saint," said Kiran Maria, who often visits her
grave. "She accepted suffering with pleasure and she continued
to dedicate all her sufferings for the cause of the poor or the cause of the
sinners."
Said Theramma, the nun's 73-year-old cousin who goes by just one name: "There
was something divine about her. Her face always had that
enlightened look. We would find it very difficult to tear away from her."
Relations have usually been peaceful between Christians, who make up 2.5 per
cent of India's 1.1 billion people, and Hindus, who account
for more than 80 per cent.
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