Nuns at St. Isabel’s to celebrate beatification of founder

The nuns and the community at the famed St. Isabel’s Hospital in Luz are having a very special celebration on May 21 evening.

They will be attending a special Holy Mass to be celebrated by Rev. Dr. Lawrence Pius, Auxiliary Bishop of Madras-Mylapore dioecese at Our Lady of Light Church (Luz Church) in Luz.

The Mass is being held on the occasion when the foundress of the congregation of Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (CONFHIC), Rev. Sr. Maria Clara de Menino Jesus is to be beatified by the Catholic Church in Lisbon, Portugal where she died. The community at St. Isabel’s belong to this congregation.

The Pope declared the nun’s beatification based on a miracle that took place in the life of a woman who had prayed to Sr. Maria Clara.

While the beatification takes place on May 21 in Portugal, nuns of this congregation at St. Isabel’s will celebrate it locally.

The first nuns had set foot in India in Goa in 1886 at a time when small pox was spreading there and the nuns offered to volunteer. They spread their work across India.

St. Isabel’s started on March 19, 1949 as a small maternity hospital with a few beds. Over the years it has become a multi-speciality hospital that is well known in Chennai and beyond.

The Hospital is at 49, Oliver Road ( Musiri Subramaniam Road), Mylapore. 2499 1081.