Saint Alphonsa

Saint Alphonsa (19 August 1910 – 28 July 1946) was a Syro-Malabar Catholic Franciscan nun who is now honoured as a saint. Sister Alphonsa became the first native Indian to be canonized In 2008. She is the first woman of Indian origin to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church, the second saint to be canonized in India and the first canonised saint of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church of the Saint Thomas Christian community.

Life

Early life

St Alphonsa was born as Anna Muttathupadathu in a Syro-Malabar Nasrani family to Cherian Ousep and Mary Muttathupadathu in Kudamalloor, near Kottayam, on 19 August 1910. She was baptised on 26 August. Alphonsamma, as she was locally known, was born in Arpookara, a village in the princely state of Travancore within Kerala, India. This lies within the Archdiocese of Changanassery.

Her parents nicknamed her Annakkutty (little Anna). She had a difficult childhood and experienced loss and suffering early on in life. Anna's mother died when she was young, so her maternal aunt raised her. Hagiographies describe her early life as one of suffering at the hands of her stern foster mother and the teasing of schoolchildren. Anna was educated by her great-uncle, Father Joseph Muttathupadathu. When Anna was three-years-old, she contracted eczema and suffered for over a year.