 Sixty one years ago Bharananganam was quite an unknown place and found no mention in the history of the world. By the holiness of a poor clarist nun called Alphonsa it has come to be known all over the world.
Sister Alphonsa was a noble woman who lived all human virtues in their fullness. Love was the special attribute of her personality. She loved everybody with a strong feeling of affection, not only those who loved her but also people who were harsh towards her. A heart which is filled with genuine love can never keep any kind of animosity, resentment or ill feelings against anybody and anything. She would say that her heart was full of love. This was the cause of her holiness. 
Jesus, her beloved spouse, bestowed upon her all the virtues like prudence, fortitude temperance etc. Besides these, the theological virtues such as faith, hope and charity were granted abundantly to her. In short, we can describe her as an embodiment of virtues and love. God himself prepared her in a special way to entrust certain sacred duties to her.
The duty was to love Jesus with all her strength and might. Real love means to renounce one’s own comfort and pleasure for the sake of the loved ones. Blessed Alphonsa forced herself from the depth of her heart to abstain from everything which was found worthy in the eyes of the world. She asked for more and more sufferings to become one with the crucified Jesus. Her sufferings and agonies were never a curse for her, but a sign of the greatest love. She was ready to take any kind of sacrifice for the sake of Jesus. She felt immense joy while suffering for her beloved Jesus.
There were sleepless nights due to the violent attack of diseases; there were times of intense sufferings and hardships. There were occasions of blame and accusations. There were moments of misunderstanding and helplessness. She never felt any regret over it since she found an interior happiness in the midest of all these sufferings. Because she had an unceasing thirst to love the crucified Jesus everything was for Jesus. She was a moving temple. Here Temple means a place made holy by the presence of God. People would find the face of Jesus in her. Really her life was a holocaust for love.
The remarkable life of a young Catholic nun came to an end on 28 th July 1946. She was unknown to the public till her death. Only a few attended her funeral. There appeared no news in the media about the death of Sr. Alphonsa.
God the almighty had been well pleased to exalt and honour the one who became a burnt offering for his sake. The very next day of the funeral people who knew her sanctity started to pray through her instrumentality and received favours.
Now there is an incessant flow of pilgrims to her tomb. She lies buried in the cemetary of Bharananganam parish church. A cemetary inspires fear in the minds of the people. People will hesitate to enter it. But the cemetary of Bharananganam became a crowd puller almost as soon as her death. It continues to be so.
Courtesy: Sr. Lilly FCC
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.”
Annakutty was the childhood name of Alphonsa. Roughly translated it would mean ‘little Ann’. It is a typical christening name popular among the Christians of Kerala. Although the immediate attention is now focused on the name Alphonsa, reflection on the name Annakutty reveals not only her childhood goodness, virtues and trials, but also an often unsung story and history of the family values, faith practices and ecclesial foundations of the Christians in Kerala. Without any exaggeration, one can say that Alphonsa’s real foundation was laid in her childhood as Annakutty, in her Christian family upbringing.
Annakutty was born on August 19, 1910. It was a premature birth, taking place in the 8th month of the pregnancy. This was the result of a diabolical shock her mother, Mary Muttathupadathu, received from the coiling of a rat snake around her neck in her sleep. Her mother died three months after birth and on her death bed she entrusted Annakutty to the care of her own sister Annamma Muricken. With her aunt, Annakutty painfully and joyfully tried to overcome the inexplicable loss of her mother and motherly love.
Annakutty’s father unwillingly agreed to placing the child with her newly found ‘mother’ with the sole motive of promoting an ideal upbringing which would make Annakutty more capable as a future house wife. Annamma Muricken educated her sternly. The family played a key role in her faith formation and love for Christ, especially through the prevalent practices of regular evening prayers, observance of weekly fastings and participation in the Eucharistic celebration.
Fr. Romlus rightly emphasizes this role the family played in the life of Alphonsa in nurturing and deepening her Christian faith. However the most important fact is that Annakutty developed a personal devotion and love for Christ. This is the fruit of her genuine faith formation. It is also the first visible sign that faith was a lived experience in the childhood of Annakutty. In other words, Jesus Christ began to become a concrete personal relational reality for her. It is because of this relational realization of God’s love and knowledge of Jesus Christ that Annakutty began to yearn for sanctity.  The desire for sanctity was for Alphonsa a and concrete response to the invitation of Christ.The surprising depth of spiritual understanding possessed by Alphonsa in her childhood teaches us all the most profound lesson on the Christian life. Spirituality and sanctity is not a mere object to yearn for but comes as a result of a personal experience with Jesus Christ in the Church and in the Sacraments. A striking narration related to her first confession as a little child throws light on this fact. She notes, “I loved God more ardently. I took great care to avoid all faults. I had nothing special to mention in my First Confession. I zealously aspired to become a saint. I felt that desire while I was reading the biography of St. Therese of Lisieux.”
Later, the decisive Christian family upbringing of Annakutty paved the way to the fruit borne in her life as a professed Clarist nun at Bharananganam. It is important to remember that because of the unique minority status of the Christian community in India, and because of the apostolically rich traditional background of the Church in Kerala, any mention of Alphonsa will always have to be done in reference to the unique ecclesial nature of the Catholic Church in India. That is the tri-ritual communion and the Christian reality of India which is astoundingly ecumenical because of the presence of all the major tributaries of non-Catholic traditions. This is why K. C. Chacko himself has added an entire chapter length prologue on the Catholics of Kerala in the fifth edition in 1983.
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