After shock of serial murders, Kerala gets a saint

Thiruvananthapuram: After a week of trying to digest the case of a woman allegedly masterminding the murders of six people, Kerala on Sunday took pride as another nun from the state was elevated to sainthood in the Vatican.

The latest Catholic saint from Kerala — and the fourth from the state — is Mariam Thresia, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Holy Family in Thrissur, Kerala. She died at the age of 50.

Thresia becomes the fourth saint from Kerala, and the third nun. The others from the state given sainthood by the Vatican are Saint Alphonsa, Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Saint Euphresia Elavathungal.

In the chronological order of their births, Saint Mariam Thresia born in 1876 comes second, following Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara who was born in 1805. Saint Euphresia Elavathungal who was born just a year after Thresia, in 1877, while Saint Alphonsa remains the only 20th century saint from the state, born in 1910.

Born in Puthenchira in today’s Thrissur district as the third daughter of Chirammel Mankidiyan Thoma and Thanda in 1876, Thresia lost her mother at the age of 12. She displayed an early tendency to be alone in prayer, reportedly often going to secluded places for prayer.

Times were tough in her family, with her father and a brother straying in their social lives, and in the larger world outside, contagious diseases, superstitions and social struggles combining to make life difficult for any young woman of those times. The First World War from 1914-1918 added to the misery.

An early breakthrough in her spiritual life and longing to undertake social work came when she befriended three others who had similar world views. Her friends Maliekal KoonanThanda, Malikeal Koonan Kochumariam and Karumalikkal Mariam joined her to form a quartet that took upon themselves tasks like helping the elderly, assisting the sick and praying for long hours at night.

At the turn of the century, in 1902 Thresia came under the mentorship of Joseph Vithayathil, a priest who was appointed the vicar in her native place, Puthenchira.

After years of social work and prayers, Thresia established her congregation of Sisters of Holy Family in May 1914 at Puthenchira.

Shortly thereafter, two more units of the congregation came up at Kuzhikkattussery and Thumboor.

Thresia passed away on June 8, 1926.

On Sunday, Pope Francis elevated four others, along with Thresia, as saints of the Catholic Church, including Britain’s cardinal John Henry Newman.

The three others were all women — Marguerite Bays, a laywoman from Switzerland born in 1815 who began work as a seamstress and became a professed member of the Secular Franciscan Order; Brazilian nun Dulce Lopes Pontes, born in 1914, and known as the ‘mother of the poor’; and Italian nun Giuseppina Vannini born in 1859, who is the founder of the Daughters of Saint Camillus.