CHF

Birth and Childhood of Mariam Thresia

Mariam Thresia was born in 1876 when Kerala and Puthenchira. Chiramel Mankidiyan is a very famous family of Puthenchira. There are three branches: Ollur, Aranattukara and Pazhuvil for this family. This Mankidiyan family belongs to the Ollur branch. There have been some famous priests and nuns from this Chiramel family. Since one of the ancestors had been the head of the village for a long period and there have been a few Mankidiyan families, the area is still known as ‘Mankidimukku’. It is a historical fact that one Mathew from the Chiramel Tharakan family saved the Maharaja of Cochin from the invasion of the Zamorin of Kozhikode, and for that he was given the hereditary title of ‘Tharakan’. All these bear witness to the fame of the Mankidiyan family.

Mariam Thresia was born as the third child of Thoma Chiramel Mankidiyan and Thanda from the Mangali family of Thuravoor, on Wednesday 26, April 1876. Following the custom, she was baptized seven days after her birth on Wednesday 3 May 1876 in the parish church of Puthenchira by the parish priest, Fr. Poulose Maliekal Koonan. She was given the name Thresia after St. Teresa of Avila. The godparents were Antony Chiramel Mankidyan, her paternal uncle, and his wife Anna. Since her mother had a deep knowledge of God, She could impart proper faith formation to her child Thresia. Mariam Thresia always had an inner quest to know more about God and the divine mystery. It led her towards God and interior life who said “From child hood my soul pained with intense thirst to love God” (Autobiography). This thirst might have helped her exclaim that “The knowledge of God is the greatest knowledge than every other knowledge” (Exhortation 14). 

​

Mystical Journey

When her mother Thanda died in the year 1888, Thresia was only 12 years old. She adopted the Blessed Mother as her own mother and found consolation in it. After the death of her mother she received all sorrows, pains and hardships with surprising equanimity. She was consoled by the celestial visions, especially those of the Holy Family when she was tortured by the devil with trials and tribulations. Mariam Thresia had undergone severe diabolic attacks, physical tortures and mental agonies. Eventually she conquered the powers of darkness and exorcised the evil Spirit from the places and the persons while ministering the families. She was blessed with mystical experiences. Jesus would come to her often in different forms from her younger days. The name ‘Mariam’ was added by the Blessed Virgin Mary to her name ‘Thresia’ to make her ‘Mariam Thresia’ on 8 December 1904. The Holy Family would comfort direct dine and play with her as though she were a member in the Holy Family. She was given the hearts of Jesus Mary and Joseph during the years 1904-1906. Even though the signs of the passion of the Lord had begun to be shown in her from 1905, God imprinted in her the five wounds of Jesus visibly in 1909, thus making her the stigmatic in India. Jesus would celebrate the Holy Eucharist in her room and give her the Holy Communion. She used to fall in to ecstasies which sometimes lasted for the following day. Her heart was fierce with an arrow by the angel on five different occasions revealing about it to the spiritual father as, ‘wound of love’. Jesus put a stone studded ring on her hand symbolizing the spiritual betrothal. She was blessed with the gift of a reading hearts and visions of purgatory, hell and heaven a number of times. She was a mystic in action who amalgamated contemplation and action.