Pope elevates Indian nun Mariam Thresia to sainthood
   Date :14-Oct-2019

 
VATICAN CITY :
 
The nun from Kerala was canonised along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini
 
 
INDIAN nun Mariam Thresia and four others were declared Saints by Pope Francis at an impressive canonisation ceremony at the St Peter’s Square here on Sunday. Mariam Thresia, who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family in Thrissur in May 1914, was raised to the highest position within the centuries-old institution during the open-air mass attended by thousands of people from across the world, including India.
 

 
 
The nun from Kerala was canonised along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini. Huge portraits of the five new Saints were hung from St Peter’s Basilica during the ceremony that lasted nearly two hours. The ceremony included a Latin hymn and a recommendation by a representative of the Congregation for the Saints. “Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession,” Pope Francis told the gathering.
 
“Three of them were religious women; they show us that the consecrated life is a journey of love at the existential peripheries of the world,” the head of the Catholic Church said. Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan led the Indian delegation at the canonisation ceremony. Attended the Canonisation ceremony of Sister Mariam Thresia at Vatican this morning, Muraleedharan tweeted. As a tribute to her, he recalled the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio programme on September 29. Prime Minister Modi said it is a matter of pride for every Indian that on October 13 Pope Francis will declare Sister Thresia a saint.
 
“Sister Thresia, in her short lifespan of 50 years, worked for the good of humanity becoming a noble example for the entire world. Whatever task Sister Mariam Thresia undertook and accomplished, she did so with utmost dedication and devotion,” he said. She rendered service in the fields of education and social service and has built many schools, hostels and orphanages, Modi had said. Sunday’s canonisation ceremony was also attended by Britain’s Prince Charles. Noting that three of the new saints canonized on Sunday were religious women, the Pope said, they show “us that the consecrated life is a journey of love to the existential peripheries of the world”. “Saint Marguerite Bays, on the other hand, was a seamstress; she speaks to us of the power of simple prayer, enduring patience and silent self-giving,” he said. “That is how the Lord made the splendour of Easter radiate in her life.”
 
The Pope read a quote from one of Newman’s sermons describing the holiness of daily life: “The Christian is cheerful, easy, kind, gentle, courteous, candid, unassuming; has no pretence... With so little that is unusual or striking in his bearing, that he may easily be taken at first sight for an ordinary man.” Muraleedharan calls on Pope Francis, gifts Bhagavad Gita: MINISTER of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Sunday called on Pope Francis and presented him ‘Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi’ and caparisoned elephant of Kerala temple festivals, reflecting India’s age-old traditions. 
 
Kerala Catholics celebrate as Mariam Thresia declared Saint
 
THRISSUR :
 
KERALA Catholics celebrated on Sunday with the canonisation as Saint of the fourth member of their community earlier in the day by Pope Francis at the Vatican, who declared Sister Mariam Thresia as a new Saint along with four others. Mariam Thresia founded the Congregation of the Holy Family (CHF) in 1914 at her village Puthenchira, near here. The other three from the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala who have been canonised are St. Alphonsa, St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara and St. Euprasia. Among them, Thresia has achieved the fastest sainthood, as it took her only 19 years to be canonised after being beatified in 2000.
 
Thresia was born the third of five children to Thoma and Thanda at Puthenchira on April 26, 1876, she took the celibate vow a decade later. In 1902, she chose priest Joseph Vithyathil as her spiritual head. Following her visions of Mother Mary in 1904, the Sister adopted Mariam as her first name and started the CHF congregation in 1914. She fell ill following an injury to her leg, and passed away on June 8, 1926, when she was only 50 years old.