Mystic · Contemporary
St. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception
1910–1946 · Franciscan Clarist; Syro-Malabar
Anna Muttathupadathu; Franciscan Clarist sister; beatified 1986 by St. John Paul II, canonized 2008 by Benedict XVI, the first woman of India raised to the altars.
A Syro-Malabar girl from Kudamaloor in Kerala whose mother died when she was three months old, she was raised by a strict aunt who arranged her marriage; at thirteen she stepped into burning husks to disfigure her foot, reasoning that “if my body were a little disfigured no one would want me.” She entered the Franciscan Clarists at Bharananganam, made her profession in 1936, and spent most of her short religious life ill with haemorrhages, typhoid, pneumonia, a nervous collapse and finally cancer. Her letters to her director describe herself as an offering and say she counted a day without suffering as a day lost.
Why he matters: The first canonized saint of the Syro-Malabar Church and of India's Catholic women; her tomb at Bharananganam draws Christians and non-Christians alike.
Where to be careful
Her burning of her own foot to escape a marriage was the act of a girl of thirteen; the Church honours her purpose, not the act as a pattern.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.