Mother of six priests and four religious sisters mourned in India

[CENTRO ANTI-BLASFEMIA]

Mother of six priests and four religious sisters mourned in India



Kolkata, India, Jul 21, 2011 / 04:36 pm (CNA).- Elizabeth
Anikuzhikattil, a Catholic mother whose 15 children included five
priests, a bishop, and four religious sisters, died at the age of 94
on July 14.

“We mourn the death of a holy mother,” said Fr. Augustine Kootala, a
family friend, in an interview with India's Bosco Information Service.

Elizabeth Anikuzhikattil and her husband Luke, who died in 2006,
raised eight boys and seven girls. Four of her daughters became
religious sisters. Two joined the Sacred Heart Sisters in Kerala, one
is a Salesian Sister, and another is a Franciscan Missionary of
Mary.

Six of her sons have become priests, with the oldest going on to
become the current bishop of the Diocese of Idukki in southern India.

“Don Bosco's promise of heaven for her is surely fulfilled,” said
Archbishop Dominic Jala of the Diocese of Shillong. St. Don Bosco
taught that a priest is the single greatest blessing to a family, and
those who give their sons to the Church as priests will blessed for
generations.

One of Anikuzhikattil's sons, Fr. Jose Anikuzhikattil, remembered his
mother's perseverance in raising 15 children during the “frontier
days” of a settlement in Idukki. The family moved to Idukki in 1949
with the first agricultural migrants to the area.

Fr. Anikuzhikattil said the family lived in a large tree house and
frequently had to face wild elephants and other animals in the jungle
who were displeased with the human intrusion.

His mother took care of one of her youngest sons when he was bedridden
for 15 years, due to the paralyzing effects of an autoimmune disorder
known as Guillain-Barre syndrome.

“My mother looked after him single-handedly for 15 years without even
a single bed sore on him,” said Fr. Jose.

Elizabeth Anikuzhikattil was buried at Holy Family Parish near Munnar,
India on July 18.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/mother-of-six-priests-and-four-religious-sisters-mourned-in-india/