Anna Muttathupadathu, a nun from Kerala who immolated herself so that her disfigured self will not be fit for marriage and dedicated herself to the service of Christ is to be conferred with sainthood by Pope BenedictXVI on October 12.
The decision was taken in a formal meeting of pope and other cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica on February 1. Earlier beatification (that is a recognition accorded by the church of a dead person's accession to Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name) was intended to her by Pope John Paul II in 1986 when he visited Kerala.
Later in June 2007 her canonisation (is the act by which a Church declares a deceased person to be a saint, inscribing that person in the canon, or list, of recognized saints) was authorised by Pope Benedict after a miracle in which one year old disabled boy Jinil began walking after his parents took him to Sister Alphonso’s grave at Palai in Kottayam district of Kerala for prayers.
She became Sister Alphonso after joining Franciscan Clarist Convent but died early in 36 years of age in 1946 due to illness.
Sister Alphonso will become the first native Indian female to be ordained sainthood; earlier Gonsalo Garcia was canonised in 1862 but he was partly Indian.
There is excitement across the churches in the country and thousands of visitors thronged to her tomb to celebrate the news of canonisation to their very own Sister. Her canonisation will be ahead of Mother Teresa who is just one miracle away from her sainthood.
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