(May 09, 2011) Another Indian nun from southern India’s Kerala state is nearing sainthood
after a miracle accredited to her intercession is expected to be approved by the Vatican.
Documents relating to the cure of a six-year-old boy from thyroglossal cyst through
the “intercession” of Blessed Euphrasia were submitted last year by the Bishop of
Irinjalakuda diocese to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which
has now asked that the “positio” or official biography of the nun be readied. “The
concrete miracle attributed to Euphrasia, who lived at Ollur, is expected to be approved
by Vatican in two to three years, which is a shorter time considering the long years
that took in the case of many other candidates for sainthood,” said Sister Cleopatra,
the Vice-Postulator, or promoter, for the cause of Sr. Eupharasia. The Apostolic
Nuncio to India, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio is slated to visit Ollur near Thrissur
on May 21 as part of the process. The total disappearance of a sarcoma on the pelvic
bone of a 55-year-old man in 1997 through the intercession of Sr. Euphrasia had led
to her beatification on Dec. 3, 2009. Known as the “Praying Mother,” Blessed Euphrasia
was born in 1877 at Edathuruthy in Thrissur district to Elavathungal Anthony and Kunjethy.
She joined the congregation of the Mother of Carmel and became a nun in 1900. She
spent much of her 52-year-old life in Saint Mary’s Convent at Ollur. If Blessed Euphrasia
is canonized, she would be the second nun from Kerala to be elevated as a saint by
the Catholic Church after Sister Alphonsa of Bharananganam, who was declared a saint
two years back.