Mother Eliswa Vakayil's courageous commitment to the emancipation of the poorest girls is a source of inspiration for all those who work for the dignity of women in the Church and society. This is how Pope Leo XIV referred to the Indian nun yesterday at the end of the Audience, in which he also mentioned the bishop St. Josaphat, martyr for his untiring zeal for the unity of the Church“.
“A model, a mirror in which every daughter, every mother, every woman - lay, consecrated and religious - can identify and recognize herself.” In this way described Malaysian Cardinal Sebastian Francis, Bishop of Penang, to Mother Eliswa Vakayil, founder of the first indigenous Third Order of Discalced Carmelites (TOCD) for women in India.
In fact, prior to the call to consecrated life, the Mother Eliswa she was a wife, mother of a daughter and widow. Nourished by frequent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, between 1831 and 1913, Mother Vakayil opened the doors of consecrated life to Catholic women of the Latin and Syro-Malabar rite.
Saints Leandro de Sevilla and Diego de Alcalá
Saint Leander of Seville (Cartagena, 540 - Seville, 599), was the brother of Saints Fulgentius, Florentina and Isidore. In 578 he was named archbishop of Seville. He suffered persecution and exile for his efforts to convert the Arian Visigothic people to the Catholic faith. He presided over the Council III of Toledo (year 589), which achieved the conversion of the Visigothic king Recaredo and the Catholic unity of the nation.
St. Diego de Alcalá was born in San Nicolás del Puerto (Seville) around 1400, of a humble family. At a very young age he chose the hermit life in the mountains of Cordoba. At the age of 30 he entered the Franciscan Order as a lay brother. He was illiterate and dedicated himself to the humblest of trades, according to the Franciscan saints. He evangelized the Canary Islands, and after a transfer to Rome, he died in Alcalá in 1463.
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