2008-10-12 17:02:39

Pope raises to the honours of the altar India's first woman saint - Sr. Alphonsa


(October 12, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday raised to the honours of the altar India's first woman saint, Sr. Alphonsa, and appealed for an end to anti-Christian violence there that has claimed dozens of lives since August. At a solemn Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Rome he created four new saints for the Catholic Church, including St. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, a Franciscan Clarist nun. Church bells rang and firecrackers went off as India's faithful followed the Vatican ceremony on television from southern Kerala state, where Sister Alphonsa had lived as a nun until her death more than six decades ago.
St. Alphonsa, whose maiden name was Anna Muttathupadathu, was born on August 19, 1910 at Kudamaloor, in southern India's Kerala state. Born premature she lost her mother when she was only three months old. 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. She was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II on February 8, 1986 at Kottayam, Kerala, during his first visit to India.
According to the Vatican some 40,000 faithful, including some 10,000 from India and around the world were there in St. Peter’s square on Oct. 12 to attend the canonization Mass, many of them waving Indian flags. Among the numerous concelebrants with the Pope were bishops from the Syro-Malabar rite Catholic Church to which Sr. Alphonsa belonged. Prior to the start of the Mass of Canonization a 45-minute spiritual preparation was held in the square during which spiritual thoughts and prayers of the new saints were read and reflected upon. Four tapestries bearing huge images of the new saints hung from four balconies of the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica above the papal altar. At the start of the Mass, Archbishop Amato requested the Pope to canonize the new saints. He then read brief biographies of the four candidates.
Following the solemn singing of the Litany of Saints Pope Benedict pronounced the solemn canonization formula in Latin conferring sainthood on the four new saints.
Listen: RealAudioMP3
(Translation of canonization formula)
"For the honour of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the fostering of the Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, after due deliberation and frequent prayers for divine assistance, and having sought the counsel of our Brother Bishops, we declare and define as saints Bl. Gaetano Errico, Maria Bernardo Butler, Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception and Narcissa de Jesus Martillo Moran, and enrol them among the saints, decreeing that they be venerated in the whole Church as saints. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".
Soon the relics of the new saints were brought in procession and placed next to the Pope’s altar for public viewing. The relics of St. Alphonsa were carried by Sr. Ceelia, the superior general of the Franciscan Clarist congregation. Sr. Alphonsa’s vice-postulator, Fr. Francis Vadakkel and layman and MLA from India’s Kerala state, Mr. KM Mani, held candles and accompanied Sr. Ceelia.
In his homily at Mass, Pope Benedict used the imagery of the wedding banquet as narrated in Matthew’s Gospel and applied it to the 4 new saints just raised to the honours of the altar. Speaking in Italian, German, English, and Spanish, the Pope said the banquet imagery with guests in their wedding gown is one of joy because it accompanies the wedding feast – which is God’s alliance of love with his people. In an age marked by trials when difficulties of every kind tended to discourage the chosen people, prophet Isaiah assured the people saying the Lord was preparing a grand feast for them. God will put an end to the sadness and shame of his people, who can finally live in happy communion with him. God never abandons his people, the Pope said.
Pope Benedict said that while in the first reading Prophet Isaiah exalts God's faithfulness to his promise, Mathew’s Gospel parable of the wedding banquet, on the other hand, makes us reflect on man’s response. Thus, the refusal of the invited first, became an invitation to all, with a special predilection for the poor and dispossessed. And that’s what happened in the Paschal Mystery: the extraordinary of power of evil is defeated by the God’s almighty love. The Risen Lord can now invite all to the feast of Easter joy, himself providing to guests wedding garment, the symbol of the free gift of sanctifying grace.
However, the Pope pointed out that to this generosity of God man must freely adhere. In baptism, the four new saints receive the wedding garment of divine grace, they held it pure and purified it and rendered it splendid in the course of the life through the sacraments. Now they are partaking in the wedding banquet of heaven. It is to this Eucharistic banquet, which is the anticipation of the final fest of heaven, that the Lord invites us every day and in which we must participate with the wedding gown of grace. Should this dress be soiled or even torn by sin, God offers us the possibility to re-establish the integrity of the wedding dress through the sacrament of reconciliation.
The Pope then dwelt briefly upon the lives of the four new saints explaining how in their holiness and pastoral commitments they adhered to the invitation of the Lord to his banquet.
Pope Benedict spoke in English about India’s first woman Saint, Sr. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception. Listen! RealAudioMP3
“He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces” (Is 25:8). These words of the prophet Isaiah contain the promise which sustained Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception through a life of extreme physical and spiritual suffering. This exceptional woman, who today is offered to the people of India as their first canonized saint, was convinced that her cross was the very means of reaching the heavenly banquet prepared for her by the Father. By accepting the invitation to the wedding feast, and by adorning herself with the garment of God’s grace through prayer and penance, she conformed her life to Christ’s and now delights in the “rich fare and choice wines” of the heavenly kingdom (cf. Is 25:6). She wrote, “I consider a day without suffering as a day lost”. May we imitate her in shouldering our own crosses so as to join her one day in paradise.

At the end of the Mass, before reciting the midday ‘angelus’ prayer, Pope Benedict greeted the pilgrims present there in various languages. He began by greeting those who came on behalf of St. Alphonsa of India. Listen: RealAudioMP3
I cordially greet the English-speaking pilgrims, in particular the Official Delegation from India and all those who have come to celebrate the canonization of Saint Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception. Her heroic virtues of patience, fortitude and perseverance in the midst of deep suffering remind us that God always provides the strength we need to overcome every trial. As the Christian faithful of India give thanks to God for their first native daughter to be presented for public veneration, I wish to assure them of my prayers during this difficult time. Commending to the providential care of Almighty God those who strive for peace and reconciliation, I urge the perpetrators of violence to renounce these acts and join with their brothers and sisters to work together in building a civilization of love. God bless you all!

Pope Benedict also addressed Italian-speaking pilgrims who came for the canonization of St. Gaetano Errico. He urged for prayers during this month of the Holy Rosary, particularly for peace and reconciliation in situations danger and great suffering around the world. He said he was specially thinking of people in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the violence against Christians in Iraq and India, whom, he said, he remembered daily in his prayers.









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