St. Mariam Thresia Chiramel

Who was St. Mariam Thresia Chiramel?

St. Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan was a woman of the Syro-Malabar Church, the ancient Catholic Church of Kerala that traces its faith to St. Thomas the Apostle. She lived and died in a few villages of the Thrissur region. She was a mystic who wanted to live as a hermit, and she ended up founding a congregation whose work was to walk into ordinary homes. On October 13, 2019, Pope Francis canonized her in St. Peter's Square together with St. John Henry Newman, St. Giuseppina Vannini, St. Dulce Lopes Pontes and St. Marguerite Bays.

Her feast is June 8.

Childhood in Puthenchira

Thresia was born on April 26, 1876, in Puthenchira, in the present-day Eparchy of Irinjalakuda, and baptized on May 3. She was the third of five children of Thoma and Thanda Chiramel Mankidiyan, a well-known Catholic family of the place. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints records that as a child she fasted, did penance and prayed the rosary often. She made her first confession at six and received First Communion at nine, both earlier than was usual then. Her mother died in 1888, when Thresia was twelve.

A hermit's heart

She longed to give herself wholly to God in solitude. Her family opposed it, and in any case she could not enter an existing convent, because there was no money for a dowry. The Dicastery's biography speaks of mystical experiences in these years. Unsure what to make of them, she came under the direction of Fr. Joseph Vithayathil, who guided her from 1902 until her death and who has since been declared Venerable himself.

Bishop John Menachery of Thrissur at first would not allow her a hermitage. She spent a time with the Carmelite tertiaries at Ollur, which did not suit her calling. At last, in 1913, a small house of solitude, the Ekantha Bhavanam, was built for her at Puthenchira; the Eparchy of Irinjalakuda dates it October 7, 1913. Companions soon joined her there.

The Congregation of the Holy Family

On May 14, 1914, Bishop Menachery erected the little community as the Congregation of the Holy Family. Thresia made her perpetual vows, took the name Mariam Thresia, and became its first superior.

The heart of the congregation was the family. The sisters went into houses to nurse the sick, sit with the dying, help mothers, and bring peace where there was quarreling or despair. They served the poor and the outcast, the Dicastery stresses, "regardless of caste or creed," in a society where caste lines ran deep.

She died on June 8, 1926, at fifty, of a wound in her leg made worse by diabetes, and was buried in the chapel of the Holy Family Convent at Kuzhikkattussery. People began to come to her grave almost at once.

Beatification, canonization and the approved miracles

Her cause opened in the Archeparchy of Thrissur in 1971, and the Eparchy of Irinjalakuda counts her a Servant of God from 1973. Pope John Paul II declared her Venerable on June 28, 1999. Two healings were investigated and approved:

• For beatification: a child born with club feet was healed through prayers to her, in stages on August 21, 1970, and August 28, 1971. The medical board judged it inexplicable in November 1999, and John Paul II beatified her on April 9, 2000.
• For canonization: a baby born prematurely by cesarean section on April 7, 2009, in severe respiratory distress, recovered rapidly, completely and lastingly. The case was examined in the parish of Perincherry in 2013; a second medical board found it unanimously inexplicable in 2018, and Pope Francis canonized her on October 13, 2019.

Why couples and families pray to her

The Church has not named her the official patron of any group. But her whole work was the family, and the Holy See's biography notes that her devotees especially ask her help for couples who long for a child. Families in trouble, sick parents and anxious mothers come to her tomb with the same trust.

See all the patron saints of couples hoping for children and our patron saints index.

Symbols of St. Mariam Thresia in art

Devotional pictures show her this way:

• White habit and dark veil of the Congregation of the Holy Family.
• Rosary: the prayer she loved from childhood.
• Crucifix: her life of penance and her union with Christ's Passion.

She is usually shown standing with joined hands and a rosary. Her congregation's name points to the model she gave her sisters for every home: the Holy Family of Nazareth.

Feast day, shrine and prayer

We keep her feast on June 8. On that day large crowds of pilgrims gather at the Holy Family Convent church in Kuzhikkattussery, where she is buried. See the feast day calendar.

We could not verify the text of an official prayer to her, so we do not print one. Let us ask her intercession in our own words: St. Mariam Thresia, who carried the peace of the Holy Family into poor and troubled homes, pray for our families, for the sick and the dying, for parents who long for a child, and for all who care for them.