2009-07-31 11:19:15

Crowds celebrate Saint Alphonsa’s feast day


(July 31, 2009) The feast of India’s Saint Alphonsa attracted 100,000 more people this year than last year as the popularity of the nun’s tomb as a pilgrimage site continues to grow rapidly. Father Joseph Thadathil, rector of Saint Alphonsa Pilgrim Centre at Bharananganam, a quiet village in Kerala state’s Kottayam district, said about 500,000 people offered prayers to Saint Alphonsa for the nine days leading to her feast day on July 28. This year was the saint’s first feast day celebration since she became the first Indian woman to be canonized on Oct. 12, 2008. Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt of Palai led the Mass. Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, also attended the celebration and urged the pilgrims to emulate the saint. Saint Alphonsa, born in 1910, joined the Franciscan Clarist convent and made her final vows in 1936. The member of the Syro-Malabar Church was a schoolteacher and suffered illness for the last 10 years of her life. She died in Bharananganam in 1946 at the age of 36. Father Thadathil said “people who suffer the most find an answer in Saint Alphonsa.” Several people mainly young waited for hours to offer their prayers. Pope John Paul II beatified Saint Alphonsa on Feb. 8, 1986.







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