Kolkata, India, Jul 21, 2011 / 14:36 pm
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.