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Saint Euphrasia Eluvathingal

A Carmelite sister of Kerala, known as the Prayer Mother, who lived quietly at Ollur

Rank
Saint
Kind
Religious, Mystic
Life
1877 – 1952
Era
20th century
Feast
29 August
Countries
India
India

Life story

She was born on 17 October 1877 in the village of Kattoor near Thrissur in Kerala, into a Christian family of the Syro-Malabar Church. Her baptismal name was Rose. Her father Antony and her mother Kunjethy were devout villagers. According to her biographies she loved prayer from childhood and wished to give her life to God.

In 1897 she entered the convent at Koonammavu, part of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, a religious congregation native to Kerala, and in 1898 she made her vows under the name Euphrasia. She was later moved to the convent at Ollur near Thrissur, and spent nearly all the rest of her life there. She took on many tasks in the community: tending the garden, serving her sisters and, later, guiding novices and serving as superior. People who knew her remembered her as gentle and quiet, spending long hours before the tabernacle.

Testimonies gathered in the cause for her beatification record that she endured repeated illness and long inner trials while keeping to the common life. Local people came asking for her prayers, and she became known as the Prayer Mother. She died at Ollur on 29 August 1952. She was beatified in 2006 and canonised by Pope Francis on 23 November 2014, together with several other saints from India.

Her convent at Ollur is now a pilgrimage site, and her tomb is kept in the church there. The congregation to which she belonged, founded in Kerala in the nineteenth century, still runs schools and hospitals in India and abroad.

Works and witness

  • Born in 1877 at Kattoor, Kerala, in the Syro-Malabar Church
  • Entered the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel at Koonammavu in 1897
  • Spent most of her religious life at the Ollur convent near Thrissur
  • Known as the Prayer Mother; canonised in 2014

Saints from the same country

Saint Joseph Vaz, Saint Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, Saint Mariam Thresia

References

  • Martyrologium Romanum
  • Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
  • Positio materials of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.