Virgin and martyr, sister of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation · Feast: 25 February
Open in the Daily Word app“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.” John 15:13
Mariam Vattalil was born on 29 January 1954 at Pulluvazhy, near Perumbavoor in Kerala, into a Syro-Malabar Catholic family of farmers, the second of seven children. Her parents were Paily and Eliswa. She grew up in the ordinary life of a Kerala parish, with family prayer in the evening and a love for the mission of the Church.
In 1972 she joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation and received the name Rani Maria. She made her first profession in 1974 and her final vows in 1980. Asking to serve in the missions, she was sent to North India, where she worked first at Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh. She also studied social work, so that she could serve the poor with knowledge as well as with love.
From 1992 she worked at Udainagar in the diocese of Indore, in Madhya Pradesh. Many landless tribal families there were trapped in debt to moneylenders and landlords. Sister Rani Maria visited their homes, taught them to read and to save, helped them form groups, showed them the government schemes meant for them, and taught them to know their rights. She did this openly, as a work of faith. Those who profited from the people's poverty began to threaten her.
On 25 February 1995, as she travelled by bus towards Indore, a man hired by her enemies, Samundar Singh, attacked her with a knife on the bus at Nachanbore hill and dragged her out to the roadside, where she died of many wounds, calling on the name of Jesus. She was forty-one. Her killer later repented in prison, and her family forgave him. Pope Francis recognised her martyrdom in March 2017, and on 4 November 2017 she was beatified at Indore, the first woman martyr from India to be declared Blessed. She is buried at Udainagar.
She saw no gap between prayer and helping a poor family out of debt.
She knew the danger and did not leave her people.
Teaching people their rights was part of her love for them.
Her family's mercy to her killer completed her witness.
On the morning of 25 February 1995 she boarded a bus for Indore, at the start of a journey home. Before the other passengers Samundar Singh attacked her, dragged her from the bus and left her dying by the road. Accounts say that she was stabbed more than fifty times and that the name of Jesus was on her lips.
Her younger sister, Sister Selmy, also a Clarist, visited Samundar Singh in prison. On the day of Raksha Bandhan she tied a rakhi on his wrist, the thread a sister gives a brother, and accepted him as her brother. He wept, and he came to repentance.
After his release Samundar Singh went to Pulluvazhy to ask forgiveness of her family. They received him in their home as a son, and it is reported that her mother kissed the hands that had killed her daughter. He was present at the beatification in Indore.
An ordinary family and parish gave the Church a martyr.
She laid down her life for her friends, the poor (John 15:13).
Forgiveness made a killer into a brother.
Dear friends, the martyr we honour today is not from a distant century or a faraway land. Blessed Rani Maria was born in 1954 at Pulluvazhy, in a home much like our own homes. Many among us may have known people who knew her. She reminds us that holiness and martyrdom belong to our own time and to our own people.
She went to the poor of Madhya Pradesh and found families trapped in debt. She did not only pity them. She taught them to read and save, to work together and to know their rights. That was what brought her enemies against her. To love the poor sometimes means to stand in the way of those who are growing rich from their poverty, and that has a cost.
Jesus said that no one has greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends (John 15:13). On a bus on the road to Indore she paid that price, and she died with the name of Jesus on her lips. Yet the story did not end there. Her sister went into the prison and tied a rakhi on the wrist of the killer. Her family received him at their table. Grace won where hatred had seemed to win.
At this Holy Mass / Holy Qurbana let us remember those we find hard to forgive. Let us ask ourselves who the poor near us are, and whether anyone is cheating them while we stay silent. And let us ask Blessed Rani Maria to give our families her courage and their mercy. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, you gave Blessed Rani Maria the courage to serve the poor and to lay down her life for them. Through her prayers, make us just to the weak, brave when we are threatened, and ready to forgive those who have wounded us. Amen.