Celebrations to mark nun’s beatification

Slain Sister Rani Maria will be declared as blessed on November 4.

Sister Rani Maria’s cause of canonization began in 2003 and she was declared Servant of God four years later. She died of stab wounds from an attack by a miscreant in central India 22 years ago.

The State is set to witness widespread celebrations in connection with the declaration of martyred Sister Rani Maria as blessed on November 4, a press release from the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly has said.

As part of this, her holy relics will be brought from Indore in Madhya Pradesh to the Major Archbishop’s House in Ernakulam from where it will be taken in a procession to St. Thomas Church at Pulluvazhy in Perumbavoor, her place of birth, on November 15.

Thanksgiving Mass

A thanksgiving Mass and related ceremonies will be held at Pulluvazhy on November 19. The festivities in the State will be steered by the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly and the Franciscan Clarist Congregation.

Sister Rani Maria died of stab wounds from a miscreant in central India 22 years ago. She was buried at Udaingar in Dewas district where she worked among poor landless agricultural labourers and others to fight for just wages and other rights.

Rani Maria’s cause of canonization began in 2003 and she was declared Servant of God four years later. Rani Maria was born on January 29, 1954, as the second of seven children of Paily and Eliswa Vattalil.