We have gathered here today to
remember fondly and celebrate and above
all to express our gratitude to God Almighty for the two rare
events in the history of the church in India, especially that of
the Syro-Malabar Church.
One is the remembrance and celebrationof the canonization of
our two saintly stars namely, Fr. Kuriakose Elas Chavara and mother
Euphrasia who is the beloved of Ollur
who were declared saints by the holy
Father Pope Francis in Rome on 23rd November 2014 keeping hundreds over thousands of joyous believers as witnesses . Another is the
inauguration of the Sesqui centennial Jubilee of the CMC, the first indigenous women religious Congregation, founded by
Saint Chavara, a great Socio-
religious reformer of Kerala of the 19th
century. Saint Euphrasia was a member of the CMC. We wish to express our
immense gratitude to God Almighty along with all of you assembled here for
these invaluable gifts which fill our hearts with ineffable joy.
At this
juncture, I would like to peep in to the background and aim of the foundation of the
CMC. The Thought about the pitiable condition of the Kerala church that
received faith directly from St. Thomas, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, caused
great sorrow in the heart of Fr.
Chavara , an ardent lover of the Church.
19th centuries had passed since the people received the light
of the true faith .Still there was not even one canonized saint from the
Malabar church. Besides, on account of the spiritual blindness there was no way
to know the heavenly Father and grow in divine love. There were neither
monasteries nor convents to guide the believers in the path of virtues and
holiness. The women who were desirous of
leading the life of virginity all through their lives had no opportunity . Thus,
there were no saints due to the existing circumstances in the Malabar church.
Believers lived like sheep without shepherds. Fr. Chavara realized very well
that it was this situation that resulted in disunity in the Christian
community. As God gave Moses as an answer to the cry of the Israelites, so
saint Chavara , the new Moses was
given to the Malabar church . About a
century before the Vat. II that taught that “every one is called to sanctity
and the religious life should change in to a living symbol that can inspire the
people of God to perform their duty of Christan vocation with valiance and power ” , Fr. Chavara founded Convent for the same goal .This shows the importance
and the highest need of the foundation
of our congregation at that time.
On 13th
February 1866 our congregation, then known as the Third Order of the Carmelites
Discalced (TOCD) for women Religious was founded by saint Chavara at
Koonammavu. Rev. Fr. Leopold Beccaro OCD, the then Provincial Delegate in
Kerala is our co-founder. Eliswa Vakayil a widow, her daughter
Anna, Theresa Vyppicherry sister of Eliswa, another widow,Eliswa(Clara)
Puthangady from Vaikom were the first members. They were a mixed group of Latin and Syrian Rites.
As the fragrance of
their virtuous life at Koonammavu spread around more and more young women
joined them to lead a life of holiness and soon their number increased by leaps
and bounds.
The steady growth of this congregation had great
impact on the history of the Syro-Malabar church. On May 20th 1887
Pope Leo XIII through His Encyclical ‘Quod Yam Preetham established
the Vicariates of Trissur and Kottayam for the Syro-Malabar Church. It was a
turning point in the history of our
congregation too. At the Koonammavu
convent there were members belonging to
the Vicariates of Verapoly, Trissur and kottayam. In 1888 Mar Charles Lavinj took the Syrian sisters
of the Vicariate of Kottayam to Mutholi at
Pala to start a new convent .It became the first foundation of that branch. On 19th April 1890 the Holy See
through a papal order placed the
convent at Koonammavu under the Vicariate of Trissur. Consequently, seven
sisters of that convent who belonged to
the Latin Rite were taken to Verapoly by Monsgr. Leonarde Melano and started
the first convent of that branch there. This section of the Latin sisters are
now known as the Thresian Carmelites
(CTC) and the Syrian section is called as the Congregation of the Mother of
Carmel(CMC).
The
Vicariates of Ernakulam, Changanacherry
and Trissur, were established and the indigenous bishops began to undertake the
responsibility of the administration . Each group flourished independently following
the constitution given by the respective Bishops. On November 16th 1963
all the five independent branches of the CMC were unified and were brought
under the administration and spiritual animation of one Superior General.On2nd March 1967 the Holy See
accepted the common Constitution prepared and changed the former name ‘The
Third order of Carmelites Discalced’ into CMC(Congregation of the Mother of
Carmel) and raised it to the status of a Pontifical congregation. That gave CMC
an international out look. She began to
grow spreading her wings of service
beyond the limit of the state of her origin. Today the CMC has 6700 members
under 20 provinces (13 in Kerala and 7 in
the North of India) and 6 Mission
Regions zealouly working for the Kingdom of God in four continents , Asia, Africa, America and
Europe.
At the time
of the Founding Fathers itself CMC started various apostolic activities. After
the foundation (1866) without much delay
on 2nd January 1868 a Boarding House(Edukumdath) for girls to stay and study was established by
the Fathers themselves. The boarders learned there not only languages and
secular subjects but also biblical matters, virtues , prayers, handicrafts as tailoring , lace and rosary
making .They were capable of teaching others too how to do certain works. The
aim of the boarding was to train girls to be good wives as the light of their
homes and of the society and if any one wished, to give her an opportunity to become a holy, consecrated virgin. It gives us
delight that Rose Elavuthinkal
(St.Euphrasia whom we remember today with great respect, devotion
and love ) joined the same boarding at Koonammavu on 3rd July
1888 and got training till 1897. It is to be noted that the convent and
boarding at Koonammavu was the pioneer institution
of its kind among the Catholics in Kerala for the training of the Christian
girls in faith formation , Christian formation, education and professional
training. As we remember this fact with immense satisfaction we also are aware
that the CMC needs to walk miles in this area of service for others. The boarding
school opened in 1868 and St. Theresa’s Girls School started in 1872 at
Koonammavu are the cradles of the attempt of Kerala Catholic Church for women
education and empowerment.
Establishing for the first time in India an
Institute for Charity and an Association of Happy Death, Saint Chavara
opened the road for Hospital service and commitment
to the poor and the destitute. Getting inspiration from the founder, CMC
started in1880 their service through an orphanage at Koonammavu in order to make Jesus, the lover of the poor and the helpless
present among them. When we turn the pages of the early history of the CMC we
understand that attached to almost all convents there was either children’s
home or orphanage.
Today, the children of
the CMC are actively involved in multifarious services through institutions caring the depressed, afflicted, rejected and marginalized, Hospitals, Clinics,
Home palliative
Centres, Social work program including Self Help Groups, family counseling , education, Catechism and
parish animation, and above all sharing
the word of God through spiritual movement, special service to the aboriginals,
animation , Home and foreign mission activities, street evangelization,
religious renewal program, new
evangelization through mass media etc,. They serve both in India as well as in foreign countries
with great missionary zeal according to the
need of the church and the people. The daughters of the CMC has begun
special social service program to help
the poor and the needy in the society as
a preparation for the sesqui-centenniel
Jubilee year of the congregation. As a souvenir of the jubilee we are giving free of cost 150 houses for the homeless, land for 150
landless families, meeting marriage expenses of 150 young women, and
sponsoring the higher education of another 150 children. In addition to these
acts of charity there is another combined effort of the CMI and the CMC
congregations to constitute a Charitable Trust of Rs. one crore to perpetuate the memory of
the canonization of our founder Fr.
Chavara and Mother Euphrasia who were lovers of the the helpless and the less fortunate. We know
that we have to enter more fields of
service where the people of God are waiting to see us with the light of truth and development. In order to
realize that dream more young women need to enter the CMC boat. “A life
separated to dedicate for God is not a life
lost but a life gained”. I challenge the youngsters seated before me to accept the path of our
saints whose memory we celebrate today. I appeal to the parents lovingly to opt
for large families and prepare their children to listen to the call of God for
consecrated life.
Fulfilling the
dream of saint Chavara several women religious congregations sprang up in
different parts of the Kerala church. It is a matter of joy that CMC sisters, as the pioneers in religious life, had
been playing commendable
role in training their members in
the initial stage and in helping the sisters in their on-going
formation . Thus, more than 40 newly established
congregations had acknowledged their debt
of gratitude to us for having trained their sisters under our
care and protection.
The Church
in Kerala, particularly the Syro-malabar
church, is being enriched by the Servants of God, the Venerable, the Blessed
and especially by the saints who were canonized on account of their deep desire to make the church holy with the presence of
saints. They searched, found out and
executed the ways and means of starting religious
congregations and leading the people of God in the right track of Gospel
values. Due to a witnessing life and the charism handed down to the succeeding
generation, Fr. Chavara and Mother
Euphrasia were exalted to the sainthood and we are celebrating that grand
memory of their canonization
Dear
brothers and sisters, I am going to wind up my speech by bringing in to your notice
an unavoidable remembrance in this holy assembly. It is nothing other than a
remembrance of a thanks giving. CMC is stepping to her 150th year.
There have been so many generous people rendered invaluable service in
different periods behind the growth of
the CMC as it is today. Some of them committed themselves for her, others lent helping
hands through personnel, many financed, there many who gave themselves, their
precious time, health, talents and spiritual wealth and guidance to water and
groom the plant of CMC congregation. Among
them stand the founding fathers and the first members. All the holy
Fathers From Pope Leo the XIII to the present Pope
Francis, those Cardinals who were the Heads of the Oriental Church especially
Cardinal Eugene Tissarang, from the Vicar Apostolica Bernadene Baccinelly
who granted the legal permission for the foundation of this congregation to
Monsgr. Leonarde Melano who guided the Syrian Catholics up to 1896 in Verapoly,
Kottayam, and Trissur Vicariates, Foreign Vicar Apostolica Adolf Medalicot and
Chaarles Levinj, Indigenous Bishops Mar Louis Pazheparambil,MarMathew Makkil and
Mar John Menacherry who led the Vicariates of Ernakulam, Changanacherry and
Trissur in 1896,and all the Bishops and priests who gave spiritual help to CMC
sisters in Kerala, in the mission places in and outside India, besides, all the
Delegates of the bishops, spiritual
directors, and confessors , the CMI,
OCD, Diocesan priests who guided the sisters in the path of holiness from the
very inception of our congregation until date. All of them deserve our
gratitude in a very special way. Along with them I thankfully remember the people
of God in general, the parishioners, leaders of the laity, well wishers and families who wanting to have
the CMC presence in their locality did lend their hands to us in different ways
especially through donation of land or
money to start our convent .We owe a great debt of gratitude to the parents of
our sisters who were very generous to send their beloved daughters for the
service of God through the CMC. May the divine
blessings be always up on you. Requesting all of you to thank the Lord for the wonderful ways through
which the Almighty had been guiding the
CMC during the past years and thank
Him along with the psalmist who acknowledged the marvels of the ways of God and praised
Him incessantly, I windup .
Thank you all.
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