Priest heads to Vatican for relative's canonization

She was a Clarist nun who led a simple, humble life marked by physical suffering she dedicated to God.

Blessed Sister Alphonsa was little known during her 36 years on earth, but after her death in 1946, she became a world-renowned symbol of faith. Miracles happened at her tomb in India, which then became a shrine.

On Sunday, Sister Alphonsa will become India’s first female saint when Pope Benedict XVI canonizes her at the Vatican in Rome.

Among the hundreds of thousands of people attending the ceremony will be a priest from Marion County, the Rev. George Maniangattu.

Sister Alphonsa is his great-great-aunt, he said.

“I’m so excited, not just for me and my family, but everyone in India,” Maniangattu (pronounced money-in-got), 44, said recently. He said nearly 700 priests, 2,200 nuns and about 10,000 people from India are expected to attend the canonization.

“When she was alive, only a few people knew her,” he said. “Now the whole world recognizes that she is from God and is a saint.”

Maniangattu, like his saintly relative, grew up in Kerala, India. Since moving to Florida, he has served as parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Springs church for nearly two years. He also serves at the church’s missions: St. Hubert of the Forest and St. Joseph of the Forest.

His priestly duties include anointing the sick, caring for the elderly and the poor, and visiting the lonely. In addition, Maniangattu also brings Mass to people unable to attend church. He conducts Mass at Trinity Villas Senior Housing Independent Living Center, the Fort McCoy Veterans Home and Marion House Health Care Center.

Each month, he puts hundreds of miles on his car traveling the county, often working morning to night, living and sharing his faith. For the next few weeks, though, Maniangattu is on another mission. He will be in Rome for the canonization. Then he will head to Sister Alphonsa’s tomb to be part of India’s pilgrimage to the site that draws tens of thousands.

Sister Alphonsa and Maniangattu never met, but she has been a force throughout his life.

“There are so many things about Sister Alphonsa that I can’t explain, but I can feel,” he said. “She has opened so many doors for me.”

It has taken nearly a half century for Sister Alphonsa to be canonized as a saint. Her given name was Anna Muttathupadathu. She was directly related to Maniangattu’s late mother, Mariamma Muttathupadathu.

“I’m sure my mother is rejoicing in heaven,” Maniangattu said, “and I believe she will be there with me in Rome.”

Sister Alphonsa’s life was filled with challenge. Her mother died three months after her birth. She was raised by an aunt who wanted the child to become a housewife, but Alphonsa had a religious vision of Saint Therese of Lisieux, “the little flower,” and became a nun, according to historians.

Throughout her life, Sister Alphonsa suffered through immense physical pain.

“Her life was marked by a yearning for suffering and a simplicity modeled closely on that of Saint Therese,” wrote Chevalier K.C. Chacko, in the book “Sister Alphonsa.”

It can be difficult to understand the saintly concept of suffering.

“Only the saints ask for suffering,” T.N. Siqueira wrote in an introduction to the book. She “teaches us by her example that we must suffer not only for our own sins, but for the sins of others. And as Christ suffered for us, we too must suffer for one another.”

Shortly before her death, Sister Alphonsa wrote: “I have given myself up completely to Jesus. My only desire in this world is to suffer for love of God and to rejoice in doing it.”

Pope John Paul II explained Sister Alphonsa’s sacrifices by saying “the path to holiness for Sister Alphonsa was the way of the Cross, the way of sickness and suffering. She found joy in them by offering them all to Christ.”

Although Sister Alphonsa was unknown at the time of her death, school children began going to her tomb, praying and asking for intercession. Healings were reported there shortly after her death.

Word spread of miracles, and, in 1953, the long process of sainthood began. Sister Alphonsa was beatified (named as “blessed” and thus worthy of public religious veneration) by Pope John Paul II in 1986, and nearly 1 million people turned out when he visited her tomb.

Now the moment for sainthood arrives.

“It’s wonderful,” said Joyiena Dominic, an Ocala resident whose family came here from India. “I pray a lot to the saints, and now Sister Alphonsa is a saint.”

“We have a precious feeling in our heart when we visit her tomb,” said Junaina Dominic, 17, Joyiena’s sister. “It’s a sacred place. It means so much for India, and so does she.”

The Rev. Valerian Gonsalves comes from India and studied in the seminary with Maniangattu.

“India is a multicultural society, but the kind of faith of Sister Alphonsa reaches all people,” Gonsalves said, noting that Hindus and Muslims also come to her tomb for inspiration.

On Sunday, Blessed Sister Alphonsa will be elevated to sainthood, like her Christian inspiration, Saint Therese of Lisieux.

A few months back, as Maniangattu was considering his visit to Rome, he was visiting the sick at Munroe Regional Medical Center when he met Lillian Hurley, 93, who said she was a distant relative of Saint Therese. It was a powerful moment. He was a priest with a bloodline to Sister Alphonsa, anointing a woman who said she was part of Saint Therese’s family.

Somehow, for both, faith had come full circle in Marion County, and Maniangattu accepted this mystery of faith.

“This kind of connection can only be made by saints,” Maniangattu said. “This is how saints work.”

Anthony Violanti may be reached at anthony.violanti@starbanner.com or 867-4154.