By Santosh Digal

Manila, August 17, 2020: An Indian nun, serving as a missionary in the Philippines, died in Manila on August 16. She was 65.

Sister Veronica Paul, a member of Sisters of Charity of St. Anne congregation, died at 7:45 am (local time, which is 5:15 am Indian time). She was suffering from cancer for some time, Sister Savita Parmar, a friend of the deceased nun, told Matters India.

On August 15, Sister Veronica was admitted to a local hospital in Manila for breathing problems. When the respiratory system became acute, she was put on a ventilator in ICU. She passed away next day.

According to the Philippine government health protocol due to coronavirus, she was cremated on the same day and her remains were placed in a columbary, Sister Parmer, an Indian, said.

Sister Veronica was a native of the southern India state of Kerala and had been posted in the Philippines in 2018. Earlier, she was a missionary in many countries in Africa for 25 years.

When her family in Kerala was informed about the death of Sister Veronica, they were deeply saddened that they could see her before her cremation.

However, according to the family sources, when things improve in post-Covid times, the family would arrange to transfer Sister Veronica’s remains to Kerala in due course of time.

“She was a simple, austere person and committed missionary,” Sister Parmer said.

Sister Veronica’s younger sibling—Sister Theresa Paul of the same congregation — is working in Nadiad, a city in the state of Gujarat, Wwestern India.

Sisters of Charity of St. Anne came to the Philippines in 1990. Today they have eight communities in the country. As many as 30 Indian nuns are posted in the Philippines, besides, nuns from different nationalities.

Sister Veronica was the first person from her congregation to work in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country.

Mother Maria Rafols and Father John Bonal founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Anne, the first religious congregation of active life in Spain, December 28, 1804, in the Hospital of Our Lady of Grace of Zaragoza.

In India, they work in Andaman Islands, Andhra, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Utter Pradesh.