Sr Euphrasia, “praying mother”, beatified
Ollur (AsiaNews) –More that 50,000 people yesterday attended the beatification ceremony of Sr Euphrasia of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Indian village of Ollur in Kerala. The religious of the Congregation of Sisters of the Mother of Carmel was proclaimed blessed in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, and concelebrated by the Vatican Nuncio, Mgr Pedro Lopez Quintana.
In an interview with AsiaNews, Cardinal Vithayathil explained the significance of the event that “not by chance” coincided with celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the birth of St Francis Xavier. The Cardinal said: “The beatification of Sr Euphrasia is an important gift for all the community, not only Christians, to strengthen the faith of people and turn their minds to spiritual things. The fervour in the hearts of the people was palpable during the ceremony.” The cardinal continued: “These moments serve people of all faiths to rediscover the religious dimension in life, which is necessary for the reconciliation and peaceful coexistence between peoples and cultures.”
Cardinal Vithayathil said Sr Euphrasia was known as the “praying mother”, because of her deep spirituality and holiness: she would spend hours praying before the Blessed Sacrament. He recalled her “face radiant with divine joy, which she could manifest to others. Her life was one of prayer and contemplation and it serves as an essential lesson to modern society that is so caught up with achieving material success. The beatification of Sr Eupharisia is a call to the realisation of the urgency of harmonizing service to the Church with solitude and prayer.”
Sr Euphrasia, born Rosa Eluvethingal, was born in 1877 in Edathuruthy, in Trichur diocese. She died in India in 1952. She spent 40 years of her life in Ollur and was proclaimed Servant of God in 1987 and Venerable in 2002. Now, after her beatification, images and statues of the sister may be exposed in the church under the supervision of the archdiocese of Trichur. It is held that Sr Euphrasia performed a number of miracles, included one recognized by the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, of the complete healing of a 55-year-old man who was suffering from a pelvic tumour.
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