THE MOTHER WHO PRAYS

Our second Indian saint to be canonized in November is BLESSED EUPHRASIA ELUVATHINGAL who was born in 1877 in the village of Kattoor, in Kerla. Her mother’s deep piety and great devotion to the Mother of God, had a strong influence on little Rose from her childhood. From the stories that her mother told her, especially about St Rose of Lima, she grew with a strong desire to be holy in a quiet, hidden manner.

During her developing years Rose began to detach herself from earthly possessions and pleasure and took a great interest in spiritual matters. This was all the more rooted in her at the age of 9 by means of an apparition of the Blessed Mother, after which the young girl offered herself totally to the Lord.

Her father wanted Rose to marry into a rich family,  but she wanted to become a nun. Her intense prayer life, which included the rosary, fasting and abstinence, as well as the rather sudden death of her younger sister, brought about a change of heart in her father who granted Rose permission to enter the convent. He then personally accompanied her  to the convent of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel at Koonammavu

Even with her desire to be a nun, Rose was often afflicted with various illnesses which caused her intense suffering. Once, during a particularly painful attack, the Sisters were resolved to send her away for ever, but through an apparition of the Holy Family she received a miraculous healing that permitted her to continue following God’s call.

In 1900 she made her perpetual vows  and for almost 48 years she observed a life of prayer and holiness. The local people called her “Praying Mother”, and her Sisters in community referred to her as the “Mobile Tabernacle”, because the divine presence she kept within her radiated to all she encountered.

Bl. Euphrasia gave her love and tenderness to those who sought her help, giving them the comforting words of Jesus’ Gospel. For each little kindness bestowed upon her she would reply, “I will not forget it, not even after death”.

Bl. Euphrasia had a profound sense of Church and she personally felt the sorrows and problems of the Church of her day. She offered her sufferings and penances for the conversion of the schismatics threatening the Church at the time, and asked the novices and children to pray for them. She died in 1952.

After Bl.  Euphrasia’s death many of those who had obtained her help during her lifetime now continued to beseech her help at her tomb. In 2006, she became the fifth Blessed of Kerala, India, and the sixth in India.