Sister Grace, curator of the Blessed Alphonsa Museum can’t wait till October 12. That’s the day her Blessed Alphonsa whom she saw as a child will be declared a saint.
She was told that the ‘frail figure in white cassock’ was destined to be a saint
KERELA: Sister Grace, curator of the Blessed Alphonsa Museum can’t wait till October 12. That’s the day her Blessed Alphonsa whom she saw as a child will be declared a saint.
Sister Grace recalls how she and her classmates were told that the frail figure in a white cassock was destined for sainthood. The schoolgirls would stop their games to watch the sick nun being led up and down the corridors of the Franciscan Clarist convent in Bharananganam.
“We were fortunate children. Everyone believed Sister Alphonsa would one day become a saint. Even the priest said so at her funeral,” the 77-year-old nun said.
It was the local children who established the cult of Alphonsa. They went to her tomb with candles and oil lamps. Then they brought home the oil and found that it healed wounds.
There are at least five nuns in the convent recall having seen the blessed woman. “I remember the nuns carrying her coffin,” says Sr Leopold, 74, reminisced. Her colleague Sr Electa Mary, 73, believes that the saintly nun is an inspiration for future generations.
Fr Francis Vadakkel, vice postulator, Cause of Blessed Alphonsa. “We went through countless experiences related to Sr Alphonsa. So many people claimed to have miraculously healed by her. But we wanted strong evidence.
Finally, a couple came to us with their younger son whose club foot was cured at the tomb of Sister Alphonsa in 1999,” said the priest, the sixth investigator of the cause of Sister Alphonsa.
“Sister Alphonsa was very fond of children. Children in this locality still turned to her for help,” Fr Vadakkel said. Most of the tokens of gratitude inside the museum came from students. Devotees believe that Alphonsa’s mediation could cure diseases of the legs and facilitate weddings because she had jumped into the fire to ward off marriage proposals.
The nuns give small packs of soil from Sister Alphonsa’s tomb to the believers who put it in a glass of water and drink it. Since the Vatican’s announcement of her canonisation a week ago, devotees to her grave have doubled. Sister Grace say,”Lots of people come here every day.”
The museum has a copy of the sermon of Alphonsa’s funeral which reads: Alphonsa is among the few great souls who lived in India; who have achieved greatness in God’s sight.
s_don@dnaindia.net
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