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Indian among five beatified by pope

Pope John Paul II today beatified five women and men of the Roman Catholic Church, including the founder of the Holy Family Order in India, Mariam Thresia, at a ceremony attended by 40,000 people in St Peter's Square.

Born in 1876 in the village of Puthenchira, Kerala, Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan set up the Congregation of the Holy Family in 1914.

Its members lead a life of prayer and visit the sick and help the poor and the needy, and Mariam has been called a predecessor of Mother Teresa. She died in 1926, but her congregation thrives.

A team of clergy from Kerala, including Major Archbishop Varkey Vithayathil, was present at the ceremony today. Mother Thresia is the third person from Kerala to be beatified, after Fr Chavara Kuriakose Elias and Sister Alphonsa.

Also beatified was the German priest, Franz Xaver Seelos. He was born in Bavaria in 1819 and went to the United States in 1843 to care for poor, sick and lonely German immigrants. In 1867, at the age of 48, he contracted yellow fever from a patient and died.

The founder of an order in Sweden, Maria Elisabeth Hesselblad (1870-1957) helped Jews escape from Nazi persecution while Anna Rosa Gattorno of Italy (1831-1900) worked with deprived youths and Colombian priest Mariano de Jesus (1845-1926) worked to promote education for poor rural workers.

Under canonic law, men and women who have been beatified are revered in local churches while those who have been declared saints are revered throughout the Roman Catholic Church.

An Italian television report said Pope John Paul II has beatified more than 1,200 men and women during his 21 years in office.

UNI

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