Sr. Alphonsa will be India's first woman saint on Oct. 12
(March 1, 2008) India will have its first ever woman saint on October 12th
this year when the Catholic Church will canonize Blessed Alphonsa of the Immaculate
Conception, a Franciscan Clarist nun from southern India’s Kerala state. The date
for conferring sainthood on Sr. Alphonsa and three others were decided upon on Saturday
at a public ordinary consistory presided over by Pope Benedict XVI. The other three
future saints are Italian priest, Fr. Gaetano Errico, founder of the Congregation
of the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; Swiss nun, Sr. Maria Bernarda
Butler, foundress of the Congregation of the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of Mary
Help of Christians; and a lay woman from Ecuador, Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran.
The first Indian saint, however, is Gonzalo Garcia who went to Japan and was crucified
in Nagasaki in 1597. He was canonized in 1862. Sr. Alphonsa, whose maiden name
was Anna Muttathupadathu, was born on August 19, 1910 at Kudamaloor, Kottayam in the
Archdiocese of Changanacherry. Her life was anything but extraordinary or remarkable.
She was stricken with suffering and sickness falling ill with double pneumonia in
June 1939 and was again seriously ill in 1940. She died on July 28, 1946, just before
her 36th birthday. The Vatican's process for declaring a Blessed requires that a
miracle attributed to the candidate's intercession be confirmed. A second miracle
is necessary for canonization when the candidate is declared a saint. Sr. Alphonsa
was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II on February 8, 1986 at Kottayam, Kerala,
during his first visit to India. On June 1 last year, Pope Benedict XVI formally
recognized a miracle attributed to her intercession.