Blessed Rani Maria | Indian Catholic Art

If you haven’t already, meet Blessed Rani Maria Vattalil, a member of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation who worked in North India. Aside from her contagious smile, it was the story of her courageous work among the poor that drew me to her. Plus, Blessed Rani was the first Indian Catholic Saint to come to my attention as her story made the rounds prior to her beatification several years ago.

Blessed Rani Maria worked with the landless poor, urging them to demand a living wage from their landlords, and encouraging them to give up vices keeping them from freedom, like drinking.

In addition, she taught farmers more modern agricultural methods, and helped parents send their children to school. (One school that started with 20 children now boasts over 800!)

Blessed Rani also organized village women into groups that could pool resources to provide financial assistance in emergencies and helped families establish savings accounts.

The work she did with the poor made them less likely to need the local moneylenders who often were also the landlords of the villagers, and so they arranged to have her killed.

In a turn of events, her sister (also a nun) visited Blessed Rani’s murderer, Samundar Singh who had been sentenced to life in prison. During her visit, she tied a Rakhi to his hand as a sign of forgiveness. (A Rakhi is a bracelet that symbolizes a “bond of protection” and obligation of a man to honor and protect a woman.) Moved by this radical gesture, Singh repented of his crime. He was released in 2006 at the request of Bl. Rani’s family.

The radical and liberating love of a simple nun.
The radical mercy of her family.
The radical repentance of a murderer.
All these things add up to a great legacy of heroic virtue to light our path in following the radical love of Christ.

Blessed Rani Maria, pray for us.

Size: 5x7" Giclee Print

PAPER:
Archival Matte is midweight (230gsm)

The print comes unframed and un-matted.

International shipping is not standard. If you would like to place an international order, please message me your address so I can calculate an exact shipping charge. If it is agreeable, I will post a special order for you. Thank you!

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OTHER INFORMATION:
Due to variations in how monitors convey color, please allow for slight variations between the screen image and print image.

Watermarks are not present in the purchased image.


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