India gets its first woman saint

[Digitonomy]

A Catholic nun, Sister Alphonsa, has been made India’s first female saint, at an event presided over by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

According to a Vatican biography, when she was only 13 she deliberately thrust her foot into a pile of burning embers.

Her aim was to make herself less attractive, and therefore less likely to be forced into marriage.

As the Pope declared Sister Alphonsa to be a saint, church bells rang out and firecrackers were set off in celebration in her normally sleepy home town.
Source

Interesting. I presume she was later repentant about the self-mutilation?

 

[jdnation]

Right now in India terrible atrocities are happening against the Christian community in states like Orissa and elsewhere. Priests and nuns are beaten, mocked and even gang raped. Churches and Christian run orphanages and other institutions and even homes and entire neighborhoods have been burnt and destroyed and in one incident even the blessed sacrament was desecrated. Converts are threathened and refused entry to their villages to see their children and families unless they convert back. Christians are accused falsely of bribing lower caste hindus to convert with free education and medical help. Even non-Christians who try to help and protect Christians are not spared and many are caught up in the violence, destruction and madness. In one incident, a young girl trying to stop rioters and vandals from destroying a Church was beaten raped and then burnt alive. She was a Hindu.

It is good that the Vatican at this time has canonized an Indian saint. I like how Rome strategically does this in accord with the times and places that need divine help. This saint and her backstory are quite suitable with regard to what is happening in India at the moment. It is a national shame! Let us remind ourselves to pray to her for the sake of this nation.