By Verghese V Joseph –
Holy Father Pope Francis on Monday held an Ordinary Public Consistory for the Canonization of the Blesseds that included Mariam Theresia Chiramel Mankidiyan, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family in southern state of India – Kerala.
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During the Consistory, the Pope decreed that the Blesseds be inscribed in the Book of Saints on Sunday 13 October 2019.
– John Henry Newman, cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, founder of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in England;
– Giuseppina Vannini (born Giuditta Adelaide Agata), founder of the Daughters of Saint Camillus;
– Dulce Lopes Pontes (born Maria Rita), of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God;
– Margarita Bays, virgin, of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi.
The Holy Father on February 12 had authorised His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, to promulgate the decree regarding the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan.
Born on 26 April 1876 in Puthenchira Sister Mariam Thresia was known for her extraordinary charity, with a preferential love for the poorest of the poor. She died in Kuzhikkattussery on 8 June 1926. She was declared venerable on 28 June 1999, and was beatified on 9 April 2000, by Pope St. John Paul II in Rome
Mariam Thresia was called during the first half of her life simply Thresia, the name given to her at baptism on 3 May 1876. Since 1904 she wanted to be called Mariam Thresia as she believed that she was asked to add “Mariam” to her name by the Blessed Virgin Mary in a vision. She did so. And it was as Mariam Thresia that she was professed in 1914, the foundress and first member of the Congregation of the Holy Family. Mariam Thresia was one of the rare holy persons who moved constantly and consciously among the inhabitants of this world as well as with visitors from the world above and the world below.