On Friday, 1 June 2007 His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree approving the miracle that took place through the intercession of Blessed Alphonsa, thus paving the way for her canonization. Jinil Shaji, the second son of Mr. Shaji and Mrs. Lissy, Ozhuthottiyil from Kuruppumthara was healed of the deformity of his left leg which was by birth twisted and bent inwards and paralyzed. A team of medical experts had certified that the healing was unexplainable by medical sciences and could have taken place only with a divine intervention. The approval of this miracle by the Pope clears the way for the canonization.
When canonized, Blessed Alphonsa will be first woman saint of India and the first saint from Kerala and from the Syro-Malabar Church. The only other Indian who has been canonized before her is St. Gonsalo Garcia, a Bombay Jesuit who was martyred in Japan on 5 February 1597 and who was canonized by Pius IX on 8 June 1862. The canonization of Blessed Alphonsa will be the second canonization of an Indian, after 155 years of the first one.
Alphonsa was born on 19 August 1910 as the fourth child of Muttathupadath Ouseph and Mariam at Kudamaloor, in the Archdiocese of Changanacherry. She lost her mother when she was only three months' old. The sister of her mother brought her up as a beautiful young lady and wanted to marry her off to a well to do family. However, Alphonsa wanted to dedicate her entire life to the heavenly bridegroom like Little Therese. She jumped into the pit used for burning the chaff during the harvest season in the hope of deforming her body so that no suitor would like to marry her. It took almost 90 days to get the burns healed. As a culmination of her desire to dedicate her entire life to the Lord, she jointed the Franciscan Clarist Convent at Bharananganam on 2 August 1928 and received the name of Alphonsa. Even though her poor health was a great impediment to her progress in her religious life for which the superiors wanted to send her home, she persevered in her commitment and earnest desire. After innumerable ordeals, she took her perpetual vows on 12 August 1936. She considered her entire life as a holocaust to the Lord in which the victim would be burning slowly and steadily. Every suffering she offered as a beautiful flower in the wounds of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the end of her life, she was overwhelmed with great pain and frailty of the body, but in the midst of the excruciating pain she committed her soul to the heavenly bridegroom peacefully reciting the names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph on 28 July 1946.
On Dec.2, 1953 the diocesan process for the cause of her beatification was inaugurated and she was declared a Servant of God. On July 9, 1985, she received the title Venerable. After forty years, on 8 February 1986, John Paul II beatified her, along with Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara at Kottayam, Kerala. The date for the canonization is yet to be announced, after the consistory to be held later.