INDIA: INDIA GOT its first woman saint yesterday after Pope Benedict canonised Sr Alphonsa, who lived in southern Kerala state until her death over six decades ago.
Church bells rang and firecrackers went off as thousands of Christians packed into a small church and a school auditorium in Bharananganam in Kerala to follow the canonisation ceremony at the Vatican on television.
"At a time when evil is so widespread, it is good to have something like this to keep our spirits up," Sr Grace Kalriparambil (77), who knew Sr Alphonsa, said.
Special Masses were also held in other Catholic churches across Kerala, where Saint Thomas, one of the 12 apostles, is believed to have arrived in 52AD, bringing Christianity to India.
Christians comprise about 2.3 per cent of the country's population of over 1.2 billion, the majority of them Hindus. More than 70 per cent of India's Christians are Catholics.
Sr Alphonsa or Annakutty as she was born is credited with curing illness and disease after her death at the age of 36 in 1946, with the Vatican approving the reported miracle cure of Genil Joseph, a congenitally deformed child, in 1999. She was beatified in 1986.
Born in 1910, Sr Alphonsa was so determined to enter a convent that she deliberately stepped into a fire to disfigure her feet to dissuade her aunt from marrying her off. The canonisation comes at a time when Christians in eastern Orissa have come under fresh attack from radical Hindu groups.