(October 11, 2008) A Roman Catholic nun, Sister Alphonsa, to-be St. Alfonsa of the
Immaculate Conception, will become India's first woman saint today on Sunday when
she is canonised by Pope Benedict at the Vatican. Coming amid some of the worst anti-Christian
riots in India in decades, the ceremony at the Vatican is expected to be watched on
television by millions in India, with tens of thousands also expected at the church
near Kottayam in Sister Alphonsa's native Kerala state. Blessed Alfonsa (born Anna
Muttathupadathu) is one of four people to be canonized by Benedict XVI this Sunday.
The other three are Maria Bernarda Butler, from Switzerland; Narcisa de Jesús Martillo
Morán from Ecuador; and Father Gaetano Errico from Italy. As a priest Fr Errico visited
terminally ill patients in Neapolitan hospitals for the incurable, as well as prisoners.
He heard confessions at all hours of the day and night until his death. In India
Special masses are being held in all Catholic churches in the state, where Saint Thomas,
one of the 12 apostles, is believed to have arrived in 52 AD, bringing Christianity
to India. Christians make up 2.3 percent of India's billion-plus population, with
Roman Catholics accounting for 70 percent of the minority that is largely concentrated
in the country's south and northeast. Alphonsa will be India's second saint after
Gonsalo Garcia, of Portuguese parentage, who was canonised in 1862. Albanian-born
Mother Teresa, who served the poor and destitute in Kolkata, was beatified in 2003,
a first step to canonisation. Anna Muttathupadathu was born in the Indian state of
Kerala in 1910. Her mother died when she was a baby and she was brought up by an aunt
who wanted her to marry. However, Muttathupadathu was determined to dedicate her
whole life to Jesus Christ, following the example of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She entered
the convent in 1928, and received the name of Alfonsa, as a religious of the Poor
Clares. Her delicate health was held to be an obstacle in religious life; but Sister
Alfonsa persevered in her vocation and made her perpetual vows in 1936. She died 10
years later at age 35. This canonisation process has brought much publicity to Christianity
in India and is favourably responded from all Christian and other groups.