Malaysia’s Cardinal Sebastian Francis, acting as the special representative of Pope Leo XIV, presided at the beatification ceremony for Mother Eliswa at the Basilica of Our Lady of Ransom in Vallarpardom.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias unveiled an image of Blessed Mother Eliswa, and her relics were placed on the altar.
The apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli sent a message for the occasion.
Archbishop Joseph Kalathiparambil of Verapoly had made the formal request for the beatification 112 years after Mother Eliswa’s death.
Cardinal Francis, whose parents hailed from Kerala, said she was not a stereotypical saint, because she was a wife, a mother and a widow before answering the call to become a nun.
In his homily, Francis apprised of the miracle “in the womb” which led to her beatification. In 2005, a pregnant woman in Kerala received a diagnosis that her unborn baby girl was cleft-lipped. She prayed for the intercession of Mother Eliswa, and the child was miraculously healed.
Born on October 15, 1831 in the Archdiocese of Varapuzha in Kerala, Eliswa Vakayil became a nun after the death of her husband in 1851.
Along with her sister Thresia and daughter Anna, she founded the Third Order of the Carmelite Discalced (TOCD), the present Congregation of Teresian Carmelites (CTC). It was the first indigenous convent in Kerala, and Cardinal Francis said it proved to be a pioneering community for the Church in India.
She is also credited with establishing the first convent school, boarding house and orphanage for girls.
Mother Eliswa died on July 18, 1913 and was declared a Servant of God on March 6, 2008, and Venerable 15 years later. Pope Francis approved the miracle attributed to her intercession on 14 April 2025, and Pope Leo subsequently declared the date of her beatification.