(February 19, 2011) A former assistant vice postulator, who had a role in the
canonization of St Alphonsa, India’s first woman saint, was killed Thursday while
trying to save the life of a woman who’d become entangled in a power line.Father Mathew
Thondamkuzhy, parish priest of St. George Church Lalam in Kerala’s Palai diocese,
died while trying to save his domestic help, Vicar General Father George Choorakkat
said. The 63-year-old woman, Achamma George, became entangled in the high-voltage
power line while working in the church grounds .Father Thondamkuzhy, who was 72, rushed
to try and save the woman after hearing her cries for help, said Father Choorakkat.
“He tried to use a plastic rod to save her, but was also electrocuted,” he added.
Father Thondamkuzhy once served as an assistant vice postulator for the cause of Saint
Alphonsa who became India’s first woman saint and the first canonized saint of the
Syro-Malabar rite.