By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: The beatification of Sister Rani Maria, who died of 54 stab wounds from as assassin in central India 22 years ago, has been cleared, unconfirmed reports from the Vatican says.
“Hridayavayal” (field of heart), a Malayalam religious portal, on March 22 quoted its Vatican sources to report that the College of Cardinals has completed the beatification process for the Franciscan Clarist Congregation nun and submitted its report.
Now, the document awaits the signature of Pope Francis to set date for the beatification.
Beatification is the penultimate stage in the four-phased canonization process in the Catholic Church. Rani Maria’s cause of canonization began in 2003 and she was declared a Servant of God four years later.
The nun was 41 when Samandar Singh, hired by some landlords, stabbed her inside a bus on February 25, 1995. She was on traveling to Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh state, en route her native place in Kerala, southern India. The attacker followed her when she ran out of the crowded bus and continued to stab her. She died on the roadside at Nachanbore Hill, near Indore.
She was buried at Udaingar in Dewas district where she had worked among poor landless agricultural laborers and others to fight for just wages and other rights. This upset the landlords.
As part of her beatification process, on November 18, 2016 Bishop Chacko Thottumarikal of Indore supervised the opening of the slain nun’s tomb and shifted the mortal remains to a church.
Rani Maria was born on January 29, 1954, as the second of seven children of Paily and Eliswa Vattalil at Pulluvazhy, a small village near Kochi, Kerala’s commercial capital.
She was baptized on February 5, the same year and was given the name Mariam.
She joined Franciscan Clarist Convent at Kidangoor near Palai in 1972 and made her first profession on May 1, 1974, and chose the name Rani (queen) Maria.
She began her mission in northern India in Bijnore in 1975 and then came to Udainagar in 1992.
The slain nun’s family made international headlines when it accepted Singh as a member after forgiving him.
Rani Maria’s young sister Selmy Paul, also a member of the same congregation, accepted Singh as her brother by tying “rakhi,” a sacred thread, on the festival of siblings Rakshabandan. Some people, though not born of the same parents, tie the “rakhi” and accept each other as brothers and sisters.
Sister Paul’s gesture helped Singh to regret his action. He now leads an exemplary life in his village in central India after serving his life term.
A documentary, “The Heart of a Murderer,” which depicts the murder and subsequent repentance of Singh, won an award at the World Interfaith Harmony Film Festival in 2013.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted the “nihil obstat” (‘nothing against’) to the cause. The subsequent diocesan process took place in Indore from June 29, 2005, to June 28, 2007. It received the congregation’s validation on November 27, 2009.
The C.C.S. received the Positio in 2014 and passed it onto consulting theologians who on February 11, 2016, voiced their approval to the cause.
The congregation’s website says the saintly nun’s courageous sacrifice and martyrdom has helped sow “the seed of love and justice and brotherhood in many hearts.”
It also says the nun, during her initial years in the mission, showed keen interest in educating children through formal and non-formal methods. “This slowly gave way to a much wider field of development of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized,” the website says.
Once she was asked why she had chosen the saffron shawl she replied, matter becomes red hot when it absorbs heat. This is true for human soul also. He developmental programs among poor tribals went against to the vested interests of unscrupulous moneylenders and social exploiters, it explains.
The congregation hails Rani Maria’s martyrdom as “the most glorious event in the history of Udainagar as well as of Amala Province.”