Mother Eliswa Vakayil, widow and founder of India’s first native Carmelite order, beatified in Kerala; miracle in womb advances her to Blessed status.
Newsroom (10/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a historic moment for Indian Catholicism, Mother Eliswa Vakayil (1831–1913), the nation’s first indigenous nun, was beatified on November 8, 2025, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Ransom on Vallarpadom Island near Kochi, Kerala. The ceremony, attended by thousands, marks her elevation to “Blessed” and positions her one verified miracle away from full sainthood.
Presiding over the solemn Mass, Malaysian Cardinal Sebastian Francis of Penang, acting as Pope Leo XIV’s delegate, formally proclaimed Mother Eliswa’s beatification. “Mother Eliswa can relate to every wife, pregnant woman, mother, single mother, and widow after the death of her husband,” Cardinal Francis declared. He emphasized her transformation: widowed at 20 with a young daughter, she rejected remarriage and, by age 31, founded the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites in 1866—India’s inaugural women’s congregation initiated by an Indian woman. Renamed the Teresian Carmelite Sisters (CTC), the order now operates over 200 convents with 1,500 members across India, the United States, Africa, Germany, Italy, and Great Britain.
The Vatican’s approval hinged on a 2005 miracle: the unexplained healing of an unborn girl diagnosed with a cleft lip at 34 weeks gestation in Ernakulam, Kerala. Cardinal Francis hailed it as “a miracle in the womb,” underscoring divine endorsement of her sanctity. Pope Francis had recognized her heroic virtue in 2023, declaring her Venerable, and greenlit the miracle in April 2025.
Born in 1831, Eliswa married at 16 and was widowed four years later. Refusing societal pressure to remarry, she waited until her daughter Anna was 12 before pursuing consecrated life in 1862. Anna and Eliswa’s sister Thresia joined as founding members. Her pioneering works included Kerala’s first convent school, boarding house, and girls’ orphanage, empowering generations of Indian women in education and religious vocations.
During the rite, Archbishop Joseph Kalathiparambil of Verapoly petitioned for beatification, while Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhath, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, unveiled a dedicated novena prayer. Cardinal Francis urged the faithful to pray for a second miracle to complete canonization.
Declared a Servant of God in 2008, Mother Eliswa’s beatification—over a century after her 1913 death—celebrated not only her spiritual legacy but her relatable journey from lay motherhood to “bride of Christ and spiritual mother to many.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHFHHcziIwI
- Raju Hasmukh with files from UCA News
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