Catholic Heroes . . . St. Euphrasia Eluvathingal
By CAROLE BRESLIN
In 1605 Fr. Robert De Nobili, a Jesuit priest, arrived in India to evangelize the people. He found them to have a noble bearing and a deeply spiritual life filled with fasting, prayer, and meditation. Difficulties presented themselves to him as he struggled to convert them: “If these people did not see me do such penance, they would not receive me as one who can teach them the way to Heaven, because that is the way of life their own teachers observe.”
Further south, a community of Syrian Catholics grew and established a parish in Kerala. From this community we now honor St. Euphrasia Eluvathingal. She was born on October 17, 1877 in Edathuruthy, in the district of Thrissur.
Her father, Cherpukaran Antony, was a wealthy landowner and her mother, Kunjethy Eluvathingal, was a devout Catholic. Euphrasia, their firstborn child, was taken to Mother of Carmel Church in Edathuruthy to be baptized — just eight days after her birth — with the name Rosa Euphrasia.
Because her mother had a deep and abiding love for the holy rosary, she gave the child the name Rosa. From her youngest days Kunjethy taught Rosa how to pray the rosary and together they frequently went to Mass. Her mother told her many stories about St. Rose of Lima, leading Rosa to imitate her praying, sacrificing, and detaching herself from earthly possessions and pleasures.
At the age of nine, Rosa had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who told her she must never marry and that she should completely commit herself to God.
Her father, however, wanted to arrange her marriage to the son of a prominent family in their city. Rosa continued her life of praying and sacrificing while determinedly holding to her commitment to never marry. When Rosa’s younger sister died, her father relented and allowed her to pursue her vocation as a religious. He even accompanied her to the convent.
In 1887 Rosa was sent to the boarding school run by the Carmelites at Koonammavu in the Ernakulam district of Thrissur. This school was the first indigenous Carmelite community of the Syro-Malabar Church. It was founded by Saints Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Leopold Beccaro in 1766.
To Rosa’s great delight Most Rev. John Menacherry, bishop of Thrissur, established a discalced Carmelite Convent in Ambazakad in 1897. On May 9, 1897, he transferred all those nuns of his diocese from the Koonammavu convent to the new one in the Catholic Diocese of Irinjalakuda, including Rosa.
On May 10 Rosa was received as a postulant, taking the name Sr. Euphrasia of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Eight months later, on January 10, 1898, she entered the novitiate.
During these years Sr. Euphrasia suffered intensely but she always remained cheerful with the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, accepting all that God chose to send to her. Her humility, charity, resignation, and even her joy increased as her afflictions increased and persisted. However, because of her chronic illness, her superiors considered dismissing her.
Our Lord had other plans. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph appeared to Sr. Euphrasia, relieving her of all her ailments, permitting her to stay with the Carmelites. Hence, on May 24, 1900, she made her solemn vows on the solemn occasion of the official blessing of the newly formed convent of Ollur.
Having pronounced her perpetual vows, Sr. Euphrasia became the assistant to the novice mistress. She still had some residual weakness from her previous sickness, but she demonstrated heroic moral strengths in carrying out her responsibilities.
In 1904, as a result of remarkable success as the assistant for her convent, she became novice mistress for the congregation, which she held for the next nine years. Sr. Euphrasia then became mother superior of St. Mary’s Convent in Ollur. Although she tried to refuse the position, she eventually accepted in obedience and remained superior for the rest of her life.
She carried out her duties while still maintaining a deep and intense prayer life. Her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus led to her being called the “Praying Mother.” She spent hours each day in front of the Blessed Sacrament, adoring the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
They also called her the “Mobile Tabernacle” because the Divine Presence emanated from her to all those who encountered her after she spent time in eucharistic adoration. By this closeness with Jesus, Mother Euphrasia was able to give limitlessly in serving others. She thus fulfilled the motto of her congregation, “Remain united to me [Jesus] in contemplation and consecrated to me in action.”
Furthermore, her devotion to the Sacred Heart made her suffer even more because of the divisions in the Church. She offered many sacrifices and performed many penances for unity in the Church and consistently implored the novices and the young children to pray for schismatics.
In addition, she possessed a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary who led her to consecrate her life to Jesus when she was only nine years old. At that time, Bishop John Menacherry provided spiritual direction to Mother Euphrasia, advising her to keep a journal of her spiritual journey. Over the years, she wrote many letters to the bishop which revealed her deep union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
When Bishop Menacherry’s successor retired, he turned her letters over to the superior of the local Carmelites, saying prophetically, “You will need them.”
Mother Euphrasia died on August 29, 1952 at the convent where she lived. Many miracles have been reported by those who have visited her tomb in the Ollur Convert.
In 1987, the archbishop of Thrissur, Mar Joseph Kundukulam, instituted the Diocesan Tribunal for the Cause of Mother Euphrasia. Pope St. John Paul II declared her venerable in 2002 in recognition of her heroic virtue.
The next step in the canonization process — to be declared blessed — required that a miracle be attributed to her intercession. This occurred when a carpenter was cured of bone cancer, which, after rigorous investigation, was approved by the Vatican as a miracle in June 2006.
The formal beatification took place on December 3, 2006 in St. Anthony Forane Church in Ollur. Major Archbishop Varkey Vithayathil presided over the ceremony on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Also in attendance were the apostolic nuncio to India, Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, Archbishop Jacob Thoomkuzhy of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Thrissur, 30 other prelates, and 500 priests. Nearly eight years later, Mother Euphrasia was canonized on November 23, 2014 by Pope Francis.
Dear St. Euphrasia, your devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to His Blessed Mother enkindled a love for unity in the Church rent by schisms and heresies. We beg of you to intercede for us that we, too, may be enkindled with such a love and increase our commitment to prayer, fasting, and sacrifice for the sake of unity in the Church, proclaiming one Truth to all humanity. Amen.
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(Carole Breslin home-schooled her four daughters and served as treasurer of the Michigan Catholic Home Educators for eight years. For over ten years, she was national coordinator for the Marian Catechists, founded by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
