History

History

Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception (1910-1946)

Alphonsa was born in 1910 to a noble family in a city in Kerala, a Christian province in the southwest of India. Her mother Maria gave birth to her a month early, so from the beginning of her life, the young Anne, as she was baptized, struggled with health issues. Only three months later, her mother passed away. Anne, or Annakutty, as she was nicknamed, lived with her grandparents, who raised her in the Catholic faith. Her grandmother was a pious woman and taught Annakutty to care for the poor, lead evening prayer, and live with the joy of the faithful. When Annakutty received her first Holy Communion, her heart surged with joy. She knew Jesus was living inside of her now. Later, she marked the beginning of her religious vocation to that moment of receiving her "divine Spouse" within her.

In 1917, the same year as her First Communion, she began elementary school where she made friends with both Christian and Hindu classmates. Three years later, Annakutty went to live with her aunt, who her mother had named her guardian. Her aunt was a severe woman and did not encourage Annakutty's interest in the Carmelites, but rather wanted to secure a rich marriage for her orphaned niece.Annakutty endured her aunt's severity with patience and resisted her attempts to engage her to young men. Annakutty even burned herself to try to disfigure herself to avoid marriage. Her great beauty was hardly damaged, and suitors still dogged her aunt for her hand. Annakutty entered a college run by Franciscan Clarists when she was seventeen. The following year, Annakutty entered the order, taking the name Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, as she entered on August 2, the feast day of Alphonsus Liguori. She took the habit in May 1930, and, almost instantly, Alphonsa endured great physical and spiritual suffering. These sufferings would last her for the next five years. Alphonsa professed final vows in August 1936, on the feast of St. Clare. After a brief respite, she was plunged into further sufferings. She wrote:

"From that time, it seems, I was entrusted with a part of the cross of Christ. There are abundant occasions of suffering...I have a great desire to suffer with joy. It seems that my Spouse wishes to fulfill this desire."  Alphonsa suffered from typhoid fever, pneumonia, and a dramatic nervous shock which left her psychically paralyzed. Finally, in 1945, a tumor developed which wreaked havoc throughout her body and caused almost constant vomiting. Alphonsa wrote of her sufferings:   "I feel that the Lord has destined me to be an oblation, a sacrifice of suffering...I consider a day in which I have not suffered as a day lost to me."  Alphonsa died on July 28, 1946, just short of her thirty-sixth birthday. Pope John Paul II beatified Alphonsa in 1986.  Pope Benedict XVI canonized her on October 12, 2008 in Vatican City.

St. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, you offered up your terrible illnesses for the God you loved so much—pray for us!