St Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan

Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan was born at Puthenchira in 1876. Her family had fallen from prosperity into debt, and she knew from childhood what financial strain does to a household. She was drawn early to prayer and to the sick, and from her teens went out with companions to visit homes where there was illness, poverty or a death.

This was unusual and not universally welcomed. A young unmarried woman entering houses of the poor and the contagious drew comment, and for some years her spiritual life was examined closely by the local clergy. Her confessor, Fr Joseph Vithayathil, supported her steadily through it.

With his help she built a house of prayer at Puthenchira in 1913, and in 1914 the Bishop of Thrissur established the Congregation of the Holy Family, with Thresia as its first member and superior. The name states the purpose: the congregation existed to strengthen family life, through visiting homes, teaching, running schools and caring for the sick.

By her death on 8 June 1926 from complications of an injury, the congregation had three convents, a study house, a school and an orphanage. It has since spread well beyond Kerala.

She was beatified in 2000 and canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019. For a matrimonial community her patronage is a natural one: her whole work was the health of the family.