Bl. Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan

Blessed Maria Theresa Chiramel (April 26, 1876 - June 8, 1926) was a Syro-Malabarese Catholic nun who was beatified in 2000. She was the daughter of Thoma and Thanda Chiramel Mankidiyan in the village of Puthenchira, Thrissur District, in Kerala, India. She was baptized Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan on May 3, 1876. She was the third of five children, two boys and three girls. Her family had once been a rich and noble family with extensive landed property. But they had become poorer and poorer as Thresia's grandfather married away seven daughters one after the other selling the property to pay a costly dowry for each of them. To forget the poor straits to which the family was reduced, Thresia's father and brother took to drinking.