In the village of Kuzhikkattussery in the region of Kerala in India, Blessed Maria Teresa Chiramel Mankidiyan, virgin, who, by her eremitical manner of life and her outstanding austerity of penance, sought Christ in the poorest and most abandoned of all and founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family.
Lifespan: 1876–1926
Beatified: 9 April 2000 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized: 13 October 2019 by Pope Francis, Rome
Memoria liturgica: 8 June
“God will give eternal life to those who convert sinners and bring them back to the right path.”
Life and Works
Birth, Childhood, and Youth
Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan was born on 26 April 1876 in Puthenchira, the third of five children of Thoma and Thanda of Chiramel Mankidiyan, a well-known Catholic family of Puthenchira, in the present-day Syro-Malabar eparchy of Irinjalakuda. On 3 May 1876 she was baptized and given the name Thresia.
She received her primary education in the village school. Her mother Thanda, a virtuous woman, taught all her children the foundations of the Christian faith. Her autobiography reveals that from the age of three and a half she would fast four days a week, recite the Rosary, and do penance for the sins of the world. Her entire desire was to love God and to give joy and consolation to the crucified Jesus. Even though girls under ten or eleven years of age were not permitted to make their Confession or receive First Communion, she made her Confession at the age of six and received Holy Communion when she was nine. This was made possible by her intense longing to receive Jesus in her heart. Her mother Thanda, who guided her in her commitment to love Jesus, died in 1888. Thresia was then only twelve years old. It was a great sorrow for the child, but trusting in the motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she entrusted herself to her and throughout her life sought her maternal protection.
Thresia’s heart burned with love of God, so much so that she yearned for a hermit’s life in the woods on the nearby hills. But her family was opposed. Later, she tried to enter one of the existing religious institutes, but was unable to do so for lack of means in the family.
Encounter with a Spiritual Director
God enriched her with various mystical experiences, granting her visions, ecstasies, and the stigmata. When heaven opened for her, hell raged against her, and she was tormented and tempted by demons. Left deeply perplexed and confused, she prayed to the Lord to send her a spiritual guide to help her discern the will of God. In answer to her prayers, God sent her a holy priest in the person of Father Joseph Vithayathil (declared Venerable in 2015).
Foundation of the Congregation of the Holy Family (CHF)
Her passion for God created in Thresia a profound sensitivity and compassion for humanity, especially for the family. With great courage and foresight she entered into the concrete reality of family life, a domain full of problems. She preferred to take the side of the poor, the sick, and the dying, to serve the oppressed, the abandoned, and the excluded. She visited the homes of all, without distinction of caste or creed, attending to their spiritual and temporal needs.
Amid extraordinary spiritual experiences and a ministry to families, her heart remained thirsting for God; she longed to be identified with the crucified Lord. She asked her spiritual director to be allowed to live in a hermitage built for her. Bishop John Menachery, the then Bishop of Trichur, did not permit this. Understanding her desire to be with God, the bishop proposed that she enter the convent of the Carmelite Tertiaries at Ollur. It did not take the bishop long to understand that Thresia’s vocation was not for the Carmelite life. And so she asked Father Joseph Vithayathil to build a hermitage for her. In 1913 the hermitage was ready and the Blessed moved in. Her companions joined her in this house, and together they led a life of prayer and penance, visiting families and helping them in all their needs.
Bishop John Menachery canonically erected this house on 14 May 1914, raising the community to the Congregation of the Holy Family. Thresia received from the bishop the new habit, which would later become the official habit of the Congregation, and the religious name of Mariam Thresia. Sister Mariam Thresia made her perpetual profession, while her three companions were formally received as postulants of the new Congregation. On the same day Mariam Thresia was appointed by the bishop as Mother Superior of the Congregation, and Father Joseph Vithayathil became the chaplain. The bishop obtained for Sister Mariam Thresia and her sisters the Constitutions of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, and after making appropriate modifications delivered them to the new Congregation on 22 July of the same year.
The Growth of the Congregation and the Mother’s Final Days
The fame of her holy life and family apostolate attracted many young women to the new Congregation. Several young women from the surrounding areas entered the Congregation, and it grew in numbers and vitality.
Mariam Thresia was admired and venerated by many for her life of holiness and courage. People of all social classes came to her in their difficulties and in the problems of their lives. The people had great faith in the power of her prayer. Mother Mariam Thresia died at the age of fifty from a wound to her leg, which proved fatal because she was diabetic. She reached the house of the Father on 8 June 1926 and was buried in the chapel of the Holy Family Convent, Kuyzhikkattussery, Kerala.
Reputation for Holiness and Beatification
The fragrance of Mother Mariam Thresia’s holiness spread far and wide. A great number of people began to throng to her tomb, often to seek her intercession in the various needs of their families. Mariam Thresia was beatified on 9 April 2000 by Saint John Paul II. The beatification took place in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City.
Every year, on 8 June, the feast of Blessed Mariam Thresia is celebrated with great solemnity. Her statue and relic are carried in procession, and great numbers of people crowd around the relic to touch it with religious objects. These objects are then kept in the family home. It is believed that God has granted Blessed Mariam Thresia a special power of intercession for childless couples. Today, hundreds of photographs of children are to be found in the room where the Blessed died.
History of the Cause
a) Toward Beatification
On 13 October 1971 the Cause of beatification was introduced in the Archeparchy of Trichur, and on 26 April 1983 Bishop James Pazhayattil of Irinjalakuda instituted the Tribunal for the Inquiry into the life, virtues, reputation for holiness, and miracles in general of Mother Mariam Thresia.
On 24 September 1983 the final session of the tribunal was held in the cathedral church of Trichur.
On 14 October 1983 all the acts of the Eparchial Process were sent to Rome. The decree of validity of the process bears the date of 8 November 1985.
The Positio on the virtues was submitted to the Congregation on 20 April 1994. On 28 June 1999 the heroic virtues of the Servant of God were recognized by the Holy Father John Paul II.
In the meantime, in 1992 the alleged miraculous healing from congenital club feet, attributed to the intercession of Venerable Mariam Thresia, which had taken place on 21 August 1970 and 28 August 1971, was investigated by the archdiocesan tribunal of Trichur from 20 April 1992 to 8 October 1992. The acts of the process were sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and on 22 January 1999 the decree of validity was promulgated.
At the Medical Consultation held on 16 November 1999, all the experts unanimously acknowledged the inexplicability of the healing. Subsequently, on 9 January 2000, the Theological Consultors and then the Cardinals and Bishops of the Dicastery expressed their favourable judgement, recognizing in the event the intercession of Mother Mariam Thresia.
The miracle was recognized by the Holy Father John Paul II on 27 January 2000. Mother Mariam Thresia was beatified on 9 April 2000 by Saint John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City.
b) Toward Canonization
With a view to canonization, the Postulation submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints a diocesan inquiry into the alleged healing of a newborn from severe respiratory distress in a moderately preterm infant, in the parish of Perincherry in the Archeparchy of Trichur, Kerala, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Mariam Thresia. The child, a third-born, came into the world on 7 April 2009 by Caesarean section. The Inquiry was conducted in the Archeparchy of Trichur from 10 May to 9 July 2013.
The decree of validity of the Inquiry was issued by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 24 January 2014.
A first Medical Consultation took place on 22 September 2016, but did not produce a sufficiently favourable outcome (4/7). Subsequently, a second Medical Consultation, held on 22 March 2018 on the basis of clarifications by the Postulation and new documentation, examined the case and unanimously (7/7) judged the fact to be scientifically inexplicable.
The same Consultation recognized that the healing was rapid, complete, and lasting.
On 18 October 2018 the Particular Congress of Theological Consultors was held, and all expressed a favourable assessment of the healing of the child, brought about through the intercession of Blessed Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan.
The Ordinary Session of the Cardinals and Bishops on 5 February 2019 judged it to be a true miracle attributed to the intercession of the same Blessed.
The Supreme Pontiff Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the Decree super Miraculo on 13 February 2019.