St. Alphonsa: The Life And Message of the Saint From India

The newest Saint of India, Alphonsa, reveals that in the Cross the meaninglessness of suffering can give way to a profound experience of the love of God and neighbor in our daily lives.

Blessed Alphonsa will be canonized on the 12th October in Rome. She is a sign of the deep roots and the maturation of the Christian faith in India. Christianity in India traces its origin back to the Apostle Thomas. The Christian faith, received and nurtured in India through ancient and modern stages, witnesses to the world today in the Catholic tri-ritual communion of the Syro-Malabar church, Syro-Malankara Church and the Latin Church (otherwise popularly called rites) and in the diverse Orthodox and Protestant churches and communities. Alphonsa belonged to the Syro-Malabar church which, like its Catholic and non-Catholic counterparts, is known for its extraordinary socio-cultural proximity to Hinduism.

Alphonsa herself had as her best class companion a Hindu girl named Laxmikutty. Unlike the Semitic and western churches, the Church in India, especially of the Thomas Christian tradition, holds a unique place for its interreligious, multi-cultural and socio-political interactions and mutual relationships. For this reason, when the Universal Church raises Alphonsa to the veneration at the altar by officially declaring her as a person who shares in the communion of saints, she also presents before today’s world a shining example of how the mutual interaction of the apostolic vitality of a church which is intermingled with the local cultures can lead to the blossoming of Christian dignity and sanctity. This should be an assurance and consolation, not only for Christians, but also for people of other faiths.

This article is an attempt to focus on the centrality of Blessed Alphonsa's relationship to Jesus Christ and the experience of His presence in her daily life. For instance, Alphonsa is popularly known as a person who loved and invited loving suffering. She is called the “Little Flower” (St. Therese of Child Jesus) of India. Both of these claims draw our attention to the fundamental reality and truth of Jesus Christ as the only Son of God and the unique Savior of the whole creation. She was a Franciscan Clarist nun.

Her life was confined within the four walls of the FCC Convent at Bharananganam. It was at the same time a tale of docility to God, to her fellow sisters, to her spiritual master, to her relatives and to the children around in the school. Although confined externally, it is this child like docility which helped others feel and discover the mystery of the grace of sanctity at work in her. In this context, the funeral sermon preached by her spiritual father Romulus of happy memory is a classical example of spiritual direction and a worthy paradigm for the profession of the dignity of a spiritual master. It is the first official step in fact exposing the hidden sanctity of Alphonsa.

Fr. Romulus preached, ““with the most profound conviction in my heart and as one who has known this religious very intimately, I affirm that we are now participating in the last rites of a saintly person. If the world had realized her intrinsic worth, unprecedented crowds including hundreds of priests and bishops from all over India would have assembled here. They would have rushed and clamored for even a glimpse of this body and for some precious relic or token of this person. I assure you, that as far as human judgment can be relied on, this young nun was not much less saintly than the Little Flower of Lisieux.”

Courtesy: http://www.catholic.org