Saint Alphonsa Muttathupadathu | |
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![]() Painting of Saint Alphonsa | |
Born | 19 August 1910 |
Died | 28 July 1946 | (aged 35)
Venerated in | Catholic Church |
Beatified | 8 February 1986 |
Canonized | 12 October 2008, Vatican City by Pope Benedict XVI |
Major shrine | St. Mary's Syro-Malabar Church, Bharananganam, Kerala, India |
Feast | 28 July |
Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, FCC (born Anna Muttathupadathu; 19 August 1910 – 28 July 1946), also known as St. Alphonsa, was a religious sister of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation in Kerala, India. She is recognized as the first woman of Indian origin to be canonized by the Catholic Church and is the first saint from the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic community. Alphonsa spent much of her life in suffering and is often referred to as a victim soul. In the 1990s, a commemorative postal stamp was issued in her honor, marking her as the first woman from Kerala to be featured on an Indian stamp.