Chiramel Mankidiyan Thresia, born in Puthenchira, a remote village of Kerala, was a remarkable person and a social reformer. She came from a family that had lost all its wealth paying the dowry of seven aunts, and grew up in poverty. Her work lay with families affected by drink, immorality and violence. She worked at a time when women were not encouraged to go outside the home. Many ways she was a social reformer. Mother Mariam Thresia founded the order with three friends, who took are of the poor and the needy. There was a great deal of objection to their work in the beginning. But she persisted and the accent of her work was on families, mainly poor suffering families.

Mariam Thresia suffered stigmata or had wounds like those received by Christ on the Cross and had been a mystic. Mother Mariam Thresia was raised to the honours of the Altar on April 9, 2000 or beatified by the Church.

Beatification in the Roman Catholic Church is the last stage in the process of canonization. The Beatified person is called “Blessed”. Canonization is an official act of Catholic Church, declaring one of its deceased members as a model for Christian living and worthy of public veneration, and entering the name in the authorized list known as the canon. There are four stages for the canonization in the Catholic Church.

1. Servant of God.
2. Venerable.
3. Blessed.
4. Saint.

Normally the process of Beatification will begin after 5 years of the candidate’s death. In the case of Mariam Thresia, her spiritual father strictly instructed the Congregation that the process be started only after his death. He died on June 8, 1964. Before that on November 20, 1957, he had submitted all the related documents such as the letters written by Mariam Thresia, History and the biography of her written by him, to the Bishop Mar George Alappat, the then Bishop of Trichur.

He first instituted a preliminary investigation through Msgr. Sebastin Chereath to ascertain if there was a sufficiently well grounded cause to start with. Then after the appointment of Rev. Fr. Simeon de la Sagrada Familia, OCD (Rome) as postulator, on 6^th 1975, a historical commission was set up to collect and examine all the documents regarding Mother Mariam Thresia. Its three members were very Rev.Mgr.Thomas Moothedan, Rev. Fr.Anslem, CMI, and Rev.Fr.Antony Anthikkat (Convenor). In 1975-1976 the historical commission listed 198 eyewitnesses, visited all the relevant archives and obtained written testimonies from several individuals, especially those who might not be able to depose later in the diocesan inquiry tribunal. This historical research was conducted according to the norms laid down in the Mottu Propio of His Holiness Pope Pius XI dated February 6, 1930 and January 4, 1939. 146 documents were collected and later submitted to the Diocesan Inquiry Commission.

With the erection of the Diocese of Irinjalakuda in 1978, the cause of Mother Mariam Thresia was transferred from the Diocese of Trichur to the new diocese, within whose territory her tomb is situated. The process of exhumation and identification of the mortal remains of Mother Mariam Thresia was conducted on 3 Saturday January 1981. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued on 25 June 1982 its nihil obstat (no objection) for the canonical introduction of the cause. Its also sent a questionnaire containing a set of questions to be put to the witnesses and an ad hoc diocesan inquiry tribunal of three judges, a promoter of faith, a notary, an adjunct notary and a cursor (errand official).Since the purpose is to collect information in an authentic manner, and not make a judgement, this body is rather an inquiry commission than a tribunal. The cause was officially introduced on 24-4-1983 and in forty five sessions between 14-5-1983 and 24-9- 1983 the tribunal heard 18 witnesses, including four ex officio witnesses, of whom three were the members of the historical commission. The Acts of the tribunal together with the connected documentation were sent to Rome, and a declaration of the validity of the process of 1983 was issued on 8-11-1985.

The next step is to write and present the Positio super virtutibus to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. It should contain sufficient information for the experts of this Congregation to arrive at an informed opinion. In the case of Bl.Mariam Thresia, the Positio is a huge volume of 810 pages of large size paper (A4 or 210x297mm). It has two parts: Part I called Informatio, contains the biography followed by the proof of Bl.Mariam Thresia’s practice of Christian virtues; and Part II called Summarium, contains the evidence gathered from the depositions of the witnesses and the writings of Bl.Mariam Thresia as well as other documents. The Positio of the Servant of God Mariam Thresia was written by the present writer, appointed collaborator by the postulator Fr.Simen de la Sagrada Familia O.C.D. (Rome) on 12 January 1995 at the request of the Superiors General Rev. Mother Mary Benitia, CHF. The collaborator had taken over the Summarium already prepared by Sr. Pavana CHF, revised it slightly, added some further pertinent documentation and wrote the Informatio, from which this biography has been extracted. The position was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 8-8-1996.

The Positio had been written using mainly the information furnished by a total of 18 witnesses, who had deposed under oath in the Diocesan Inquiry Tribunal of 1983. Of these witnesses, 15 were eyewitnesses, including 4 sisters of the Congregation of Holy Family, the others being outsiders.

The causes are divided into two kinds: historical (ancient) and modern (recent). A modern cause is one in which evidence is collected chiefly from witnesses, whereas a historical cause is one for which there are no witnesses, and the evidence is based exclusively on historical documents. The cause of Mariam Thresia was a modern cause, and the fact that out of 18 witnesses, 15 were eyewitness, leaves no doubt about the matter.

The Positio together with the Relatio et vota was submitted to a Panel of nine theologian consultors, who were asked to formulate their answer to the question “an constet de virtutibus…in gradu eroico, in casu et as effectum de quo agitur” (that is, is it certain that the Servant of God practiced virtues in a heroic degree in the case as presented and with regard to the matter in question?).All the theologian consultors cast a positive vote while presenting their written observations in a session held on 9-10-1998.

Now it was the turn of the third panel of consultors of the Pope, the panel of cardinals and bishops, who are members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. They examined the Positio together with the Relatio et vota and the observations of theological consultors. They met on 15-4-1999. Cardinal D.Simon Lourdusamy from India was the “ponens” or keynote speaker. They gave a unanimous affirmative vote. It is to be noted that these panels have only a consultative vote, the final decision or judgement being reserved to the Roman Pontiff, who is the only judge (technically speaking) in the whole process. In his presence and with his approval, on 28 June 1999 a decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints was read and promulgated stating that the Servant of God Mariam Thresia Mankidiyan had practiced in a heroic degree the Christian virtues. In all, nine decrees were read and promulgated that day, five on virtues and four on miracles, of which two were in view of canonization, while others were in view of beatification. Obviously, only a summary of each of these decrees could have been read in a single session lasting less than two hours. It is customary for the function to take place in the ‘Hall of Pope Clement IX in the papal palace in the Vatican attended by the cardinals and bishops of the respective panels, the postulators and the “actors” of their representatives.

With the promulgation of the decree the Servant of God Mariam Thresia became entitled to be Venerable. What was still needed for the beatification of Ven. Mother Mariam Thresia was the evidence of a miracle attributable to her intercession. The healing of Mathew Pelisseri’s congenital club feet which had taken place in 1970-71, was enquired into by a Diocesan Enquiry Tribunal in 1992. The tribunal sat from 28-4-1992 till 26-7-1992 in Trichur, in whose territory the miracle had taken place. This tribunal heard 23 witnesses, including Mathew, his parents and four doctors. The validity of the process was declared by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 22-1-1999. The relative documentation and evidence were submitted to a panel of five doctors appointed by the congregation for the Causes of Saints, all university professors teaching in faculties of medicine. They returned their expert opinion and a unanimously positive vote on 6-11-1999 that the sudden cue of Mathew’s Club Feet at the age of fourteen/fifteen had no scientific explanation. Their vote and relative documentation were gathered in to a fresh document called Positio super miraculo of 179 pages written by the present writer and submitted to the Congregation on 23-12-1999. It was examined by a panel of six theologian consultors, who in their session of 5-1-2000 concluded unanimously that the healing in question was a miracle that took place through the intercession of Ven. Mother Mariam Thresia. Likewise, after examining the Positio and the Theologians’ written observations, the Commission of Cardinals and Bishops met on 18-1-2000 and unanimously confirmed the vote of the Theologians. The decree stating that this was a genuine miracle that had taken place through the intercession of Ven. Mother Mariam Thresia was read by the officials of the Roman Congregation in the presence of the Holy Father Pope John Paul II on January 27, 2000 and with his approval promulgated. The function was almost a replica of the one of 28-6-1999 on the virtues, this time it was on a miracle. In that long session 12 decrees were read in all, 2 on virtues, 7 on miracles, and 3 on martyrdom.

This time the decree did not confer any new title but entitled Ven. Mariam Thresia to beatification. And it was for the pope to do so. That same evening of 27 January 2000 the postulator was notified by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints that the beatification of Ven. Mother Mariam Thresia was being scheduled to take place on 9 April 2000.