In the Canonisation ceremony held at the Vatican City in Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis declared Kerala nun Mariam Thresia as a saint. The Eucharistic celebration was held at St. Peter’s Square and was attended by members of the congregation from Kerala.
Mariam Thresia was a native of Kerala’s Thrissur district and is the founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family, which is now part of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.
Born in 1876 as a member of Chiramel Mankidiyan family of Thrissur, Mariam Thresia started the congregation in 1914 with the help of three friends. She passed away due to illness back in 1926 at the age of 50.
Mariam Thresia is the fourth person from Kerala to be elevated to sainthood.
As per records of the Congregation of the Holy Family, Thresia hailed from a humble family background. Thresia’s work was also centred on families struggling with various problems. “She worked at a time when women were not encouraged to go outside the home. There were many objections to their work in the beginning. But she persisted and the continued her work for poor families. In many ways, she was a social reformer,” it states.
It is also said that Mariam Thresia suffered stigmata – wounds like that of Jesus Christ on her hands, wrist and feet. Thresia was declared Blessed on April 2000 by the then Pope John Paul II.
In February 2019, Pope Francis authorised a decree recognising a miracle through her intervention, which cleared her for sainthood.
Along with Mariam Thresia, English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini, was also declared to sainthood by the Pope.
V Muraleedharan with delegation from ‘Congregation of the Holy Family' in Rome
Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan lead the Indian delegation to Vatican City to attend the Canonisation ceremony. According to reports, about 50 bishops from the Syro Malabar Catholic Church also attended the event held in Vatican.
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