Saint Alphonsa, F.C.C., (born Anna Muttathupadathu; 19 August 1910 – 28 July 1946) was an Indian religious sister and educator. She was the first woman of Indian origin to be canonised as a saint by the Catholic Church,[1] and the first canonised saint of the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic Church based in Kerala. Her feast day is observed on 28 July. In the year of 1990s St. Alphonsa's stamp was published with the help of Kerala's former minister, late Mr. K. Karunakaran.
St Alphonsa was born as Anna Muttathupadathu in a Syro-Malabar Nasrani family to Joseph Muttathupadathil and Mary Puthukari[3] in Kudamalloor, near Kottayam, on 19 August 1910.[4] She was baptised on 27 August. Alphonsamma, as she was locally known, was born in Arpookara, a village in the princely state of Travancore within Kerala, India. This lies within the Archdiocese of Changanassery.
Her parents nicknamed her Annakkutty (little Anna). She had a difficult childhood and experienced loss and suffering early on in life. Anna's mother died when she was young, so her maternal aunt raised her. Hagiographies describe her early life as one of suffering at the hands of her stern foster mother and the teasing of schoolchildren.[5] Anna was educated by her great-uncle, Father Joseph Muttathupadathu. When Anna was three-years-old, she contracted eczema and suffered for over a year.[6]
In 1916, Anna started school in Arpookara. She received her First Communion on 27 November 1917. When the first school cycle ended in 1920, the time had come to transfer to Muttuchira, to the house of her aunt Anna Murickan, to whom her mother, before she died, had entrusted her as her adoptive mother. She was raised in the Murickan family, which was an ancient and prominent family. Anna received many marriage proposals from reputed families. During Saint Alphonsa's childhood, her grandmother tells her stories of saints, teach prayers and Christian songs. However, she had a feeling in he mind that she wants to be a bride of god and do good things for people.[3] During that period Thérèse of Lisieux appeared and told her that she will become a saint. There are many similarities in the lives of Anna and Thérèse, and she was Anna's all-time favorite person and role model.
Anna sacrificed her material fortune and wanted to dedicate her life to Jesus Christ. In 1923, Anna's feet were burnt when she fell into a pit of burning chaff; local hagiographies describe this as a self-inflicted injury in order to avoid her foster mother's attempt to arrange a marriage for her and thereby to fulfill her desire for becoming a religious sister instead.This accident left her partially disabled for the rest of her life.
When it became possible, Anna joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation, a religious congregation of the Third Order of St. Francis, and through them, completed her schooling.
Anna arrived at the Clarist convent at Bharananganam, Kottayam district, on Pentecost Sunday 1927. She received the postulant's veil on 2 August 1928 and took the name Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception in honor of St. Alphonsus Ligouri, whose feast day it was.[8] In May 1929 Sister Alphonsa was assigned to teach at Malayalam High School at Vazhappally. Her foster mother died in 1930. She resumed her studies at Changanacherry, while working as a temporary teacher at a school at Vakakkad. On 19 May 1930 Alphonsa entered the novitiate of the congregation at Bharananganam. On 11 August 1931 she completed the novitiate and took her first vows. And became a religious in the Catholic Church.
After a series of serious health problems, she died on 28 July 1946, at a young age of 35. She was buried at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Bharananganam, Travancore (present day Kottayam district) in the Diocese of Palai. Her death news made her loved one sad. Many people came came to see St. Alphonso's funeral.