Pope Francis to anoint two Kerala religious leaders as Saints today

Kerala’s Catholic community was overjoyed and held special prayers after it was announced that the Pope would elevate two Keralite religious leaders as saints at a special service in the Vatican on Sunday. Kuriakose Elias Chavara, popularly known as Chavara Achen, and Sister Euphrasia, popularly known as Evuprasiamma, were cleared by the Pope for sainthood in April this year. Catholic churches across the state observed special prayers for the event during Sunday mass. Christians constitute 23 percent of Kerala’s 33 million strong population and 50 percent of them are Catholics. Kuriakose Chavara was born on 10 February, 1805, at Kainakary near Alappuzha to Iko Kuriakose Chavara and Mariam Thoppil. He began his priesthood studies at the young age of 13. He entered the seminary in 1818 and was ordained on 29 November 1829, becoming Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Verapoly (near Kochi) in 1861. [caption id=“attachment_1817151” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Chavara was also a social reformer and believed that intellectual development and education of women was the first step towards overall social welfare. He first introduced the system called “A school along with every church”, which was successful in making free education available for everyone. Chavara died on 3 January, 1871, aged 65. Sister Euphrasia was born Rosa Eluvathingal on 7 October 1877, at Edathuruthy (Ollur) in Thrissur district. She joined the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel and received her nun’s veil in May 1900. She died on 29 August, 1952. Sister Euphrasia was declared a Servant of God in 1987, followed by Venerable on 5 July, 2002. She was declared as “Blessed” on 3 December 2006, by Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil, the Major Archbishop of the Syro Malabar church. The two of them incidentally belong to the same Carmelite congregation of the Syro Malabar Catholic church in the state and more importantly the women’s congregation was founded by Chavara Achen. It was in 2008 that Sister Alphonsa became the first native Indian to be canonized and she too belonged to the Syro Malabar Catholic Church. To witness the canonisation ceremony Sunday, a 5,000-strong delegation of Kerala Catholic has reached the Vatican. The delegation includes respected personalities from other religions. The Kerala government deputed two ministers for the occasion. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien is leading the Indian delegation. IANS