Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for Cause of Saints, Vatican, arrived in India on Thursday. He is here to preside over the Beatification Ceremony of Sister Rani Maria to be held on Saturday in Indore. After beatification, Sister Rani Maria will be known as Blessed Sister Maria. ‘Blessed’ is a stage below sainthood. He is accompanied by Monsignor Robert James Sarno, Official of the Congregation for Causes of Saints.
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The Apostolic Nuncio to India Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro and Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX the Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and Fr. Anand David Xalxo received the distinguished visitors at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. The Apostolic Nuncio gave a bouquet of flowers and Bishop Theodore placed a shawl on the two distinguished visitors.
Thousands of Christians will attend the beatification of Sister Rani Maria, who was stabbed to death in 1995 by a man allegedly hired by moneylenders affected by her work, in Indore Saturday. The Catholic church follows a four-phase canonisation process of which beatification is the penultimate phase.
Among those expected to attend the ceremony are 45 bishops and five cardinals from India. About 120 members, including her close relatives, from the nurse’s native village will attend the ceremony. In all, about 10,000 Christian community members are likely to attend the ceremony.
Born in 1954, Sister Rani Maria came to north India as a member of Franciscan Clarist Congregation for missionary work. In 1995, she was dragged out of a bus and stabbed 54 times by Samandar Singh near Indore, and left to die. Singh was allegedly hired by moneylenders affected by her work among women who were organising self-help groups.
Singh was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The nun’s family later pardoned him and accepted him as their own. He was released in 2006.