Celebrations have started at the Shrine of Blessed Mariam Thresia, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, at Kuzhikkattussery in Thrissur district after Pope Francis formally approved her canonisation at an ordinary public consistory of cardinals on causes of canonisation at the Vatican on July 1
The Pope will declare Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan a saint on October 13. The canonisation will take place at St. Peter’s Square on October 13 this year. The nun from Thrissur will be canonised during a Mass along with John Henry Newman from England, Italian Josephine Vannini, Swiss Marguerite Bays, and Brazilian Irm Dulce Pontes.
“It’s a happy moment not only for the Sisters of the Holy Family but for all believers.
A team from Kerala will participate in the special prayer session on the previous day of canonisation at the Vatican,” said Sister Rosmin Mathew of the Kuzhikkattussery Mariam Thresia convent.
The nun belongs to the Syro-Malabar Church based in Kerala. She was born at Puthenchira on April 26, 1876 and died at Kuzhikkattussery on June 8, 1926. The nun was declared venerable on June 28, 1999 and beatified on April 9, 2000 by Pope St. John Paul II in Rome. She was professed in 1914. The founder and the first member of the Congregation of the Holy Family, Mariam Thresia, “with indomitable energy and utter trust in divine providence”, built, in less than 12 years, three new convents, two schools, two hostels, a study house, and an orphanage, a Vatican document said.
1,500 professed sisters
The Congregation of the Holy Family has over 1,500 professed sisters, serving in Kerala, in the mission areas of North India, in Germany, Italy and Ghana, with a total of 176 houses in seven provinces and 119 novices, it said.
The Vatican had earlier declared three Kerala-born Indian Catholics as Saints. While Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Sister Euphrasia, who also belongs to Thrissur, were canonised into the league of saints by Pope Francis in 2014, sister Alphonsa was declared a saint in 2008.
(with inputs from Press Trust of India)