Meet India’s newest recognized saint (part 1)

February 16-17 2019:
6th   Sunday of Ordinary Time 

Meet India’s newest recognized Saint

A mystic and stigmatist who levitated, she also braved cultural norms,  going out without a male escort to care for the poor.

Pope Francis this week recognized a miracle  attributed to the intercession of Blessed Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan, founder of the Con-gregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family (CHF) in Kerala, India, making her the third nun to be elevated to the status of sainthood from Kerala. Mariam Thresia was called during the first half of her life simply Thresia, the name given to her at Baptism on May 3, 1876. Beginning in 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. And it was as Mariam Thresia that she  was professed in 1914, the foundress and first member of the Congregation of the Holy Family.

She was born April 26, as the daughter of Thoma and Thanda Chiramel Mankidiyan in the village of Puthenchira, Trichur District, Kerala. Though once a rich and noble family with extensive property, they became poorer and poorer as Thresia’s grandfather married away seven daughters one after the other, selling the property to pay for each a costly dowry. To forget the poor straits to which the family was reduced, Thresia’s father and brother took to drinking.

Such was the family background in which the  future pioneer of the family apostolate was born. The third of five children, two boys and three girls, Thresia grew up in piety and holiness under the loving guidance of her saintly mother Thanda.
As she wrote later in her autobiography (a small document of barely six pages written under obedi-ence to her spiritual father), from early childhood Thresia was moved by an intense desire to love God. For this purpose she fasted four times a week and prayed the Marian Rosary several times a day. Seeing her thinned down at 8 years of age, Thanda tried to dissuade Thresia from her severe fasts and night vigils. But Thresia wanted to be ever more in the likeness of the suffering Christ; to him she also consecrated her virginity when she was about 10 years old. 



Source:Indian Catholic Matters | Feb 14, 2019

(To be continued.)

Servant of God Eileen O’Connor, of Coogee, Sydney (Part 2)

February 9-10 2019:
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Servant of God Eileen O’Connor, of Coogee, Sydney.
Part 2

Last year the canonisation cause of Eileen O’Connor was introduced. Eileen is now known as Servant of God Eileen O’Connor. Some parishioners are travelling to her tomb at the Our Lady’s Nurses of the Poor convent in Coogee on March 9. All parishioners are welcome.
 
The information below is from an article by Michael McKernan, published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (MUP), 1988  
The enterprise did not prosper and all recruits, except O'Connor, left the Coogee house. Gradually they were re-placed and a small community of seven, called Our Lady's Nurses of the Poor, elected O'Connor as their first superior. The work of the 'Brown Sisters' consisted in visiting the sick poor in their homes and in nursing them and the frail aged. O'Connor supervised this work and directed the spiri-tual development of the congregation.
Some Sacred Heart missionaries alleged that an improper relationship had grown up between the twin founders of Our Lady's Nurses; McGrath was prevented from officiating as a priest. He appealed to Rome and, remarkably in view of her condition, O'Connor, with the assistance of a nurse, trav-elled to Rome and London in 1915 to support his cause. Granted an interview with Pope Benedict XV she influ-enced the decision to reinstate McGrath as a priest even though he was not permitted to return to Australia for about thirty years.

The growth of the institute now exclusively in her hands, O'Connor provided strong leadership and direction. Apart from the Roman interlude, she was almost entirely bed-ridden. She died on 10 January 1921 of chronic tuberculosis of the spine and exhaustion. She was buried in Randwick cemetery but in 1937 the body was exhumed and reinterred beneath the chapel at Our Lady's Home; it was found to be in a state of perfect preservation. The congregation which claims her as co-foundress continues at Our Lady's Home at Coogee with three additional houses.

(concluded)
 

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 The Weaver
My life is but a weaving, between my God and me, I do not choose the colours, He worketh steadily. Oft times he weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside. Not till the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly, Will God unroll the canvas, and explain the reasons why The dark threads are as needful in the skilful weaver's hand As threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned. He knows, He loves, He cares, Nothing this truth can dim. He gives His very best to those Who leave the choice with Him.
Anonymous

 
 

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Servant of God Eileen O’Connor, of Coogee, Sydney (Part 1)

February 2-3 2019:
4th Sunday of Ordinary Time


Servant of God Eileen O’Connor, of Coogee, Sydney (Part 1)

Last year the canonisation cause of Eileen O’Connor was introduced. Eileen is now known as Servant of God Eileen O’Connor. Some parishioners are travel-ling to her tomb at the Our Lady’s Nurses of the Poor convent in Coogee.  All parishioners are welcome.
The information below is from an article by Michael McKernan, published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (MUP), 1988

Eily Rosaline (Eileen) O'Connor (1892-1921), religious, was born on 19 February 1892 at Richmond, Melbourne, eldest of four children of Irish parents Charles Fergus O'Connor, clerk, and his wife An-nie, née Kilgallim. Eileen, as she was known, when 3 fell from her pram and severely damaged her spine. Despite several operations nothing could be done to alleviate the terrible pain she endured. Later, radiologists discovered that her spine was at an angle of eighty degrees which should have prevented her from walking.
A member of a devout Catholic family, Eileen irregu-larly attended the Richmond parish school. With few friends of her own age and little opportunity for the normal preoccupations of childhood, she turned to her family and to her religion for consolation.
In 1902 the family moved to Sydney. When in 1911 Charles O'Connor died, his widow faced great finan-cial difficulty and sought help from a friend, a priest who introduced her to the parish priest of Coogee, Fr Edward McGrath, a fellow member of the Missionar-ies of the Sacred Heart. He found accommodation for the family and witnessed the courage with which Ei-leen met her disability. In McGrath's opinion she came close to death when lapsing into unconscious-ness during periods of particularly intense pain.
Deeply religious, Eileen claimed to have received a visitation from Mary, mother of Christ, who encour-aged her to accept her suffering for the good of others. She told only McGrath of this and he shared with her his hope of establishing a congregation of nurses to serve the poor. Eileen entered into his scheme with enthusiasm and on 15 April 1913 moved into a rented house at Coogee which, known as Our Lady's Home, would serve as a convent for the new congregation.

(concluded next week)