Catholics beatify late Palestinian nun who educated Arab girls
Sister Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas, who died in 1927, founded the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary.
By The Associated Press Tags: Israel newsA Palestinian nun who co-founded a charity dedicated to educating Arab girls has taken an important step toward sainthood.
Thousands of worshippers gathered in the biblical town of Nazareth on Sunday to attend the beatification of the late Sister Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas.
Ghattas helped found the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem in the 1880s.
The order, highly regarded in Palestinian communities, continues to run schools for Palestinian girls in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Ghattas died in Jerusalem in 1927 at the age of 83.
During Sunday's ceremony, the church unveiled a portrait of Ghattas and celebrated Mass.
Pope Benedict XVI approved the beatification in July - the final step before sainthood.
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Nun in Jerusalem. Eyal Tuag |
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When one hears all the talk today about how one of the solutions to poverty in the Third World is to educate women, it's pretty hard to have a problem with this.