Holy Father Pope Francis has cleared the way for eight Servants of God, including an Indian priest, Father Varghese Payapilly, taking them a step closer to sainthood. On April 14, His Holiness Pope Francis received His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of the decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servants of God.
The new venerable is Father Varghese Payapilly, a diocesan priest who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Destitute in Kerala, southern India. He was born on August 8, 1876, and died of typhoid in Ernakulam on October 5, 1929, at the age of 53. After a disastrous flood in 1924, Father Payapilly transformed his parish into a center for the homeless. The experience led him to start a religious congregation of women and name it the Sisters of the Destitute, on March 19, 1927.
The nuns today runs numerous homes for street children, abandoned elderly people, beggars, terminally ill people with cancer and AIDS, and physically and mentally disabled people. The order also has centers for work activities, hospitals, dispensaries, palliative care centers, kindergartens and schools.
Source: www.mattersindia.com
