Sister Prasanna Devi, a Catholic hermit nun who was an inspiration for many, especially Hindus, died February 27 in the western Indian state of Gujarat. She would have turned 89 on March 13.
Sister Devi was suffering from age-related illnesses for the past few years.
The death occurred at 2:33 p.m. at the parish presbytery of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Junagadh, a town in Gujarat where she had been staying for nearly a decade.
Carmelite Father Vinod Kanatt, the parish priest who looked after the nun, told Matters India that she was discharged from Christ hospital Rajkot two days earlier. She was taken to the hospital on February 3 after her health deteriorated.
The funeral is scheduled at 10 a.m. on March 1 in Junagadh.
Sister Devi had lived four decades among lions, panthers and other wild animals deep inside Girnar mountain range, the only home for Asiatic lions in India.
The nun does not belong to a particular religious order. She had chosen the contemplative life of an ascetic, devoting her life to God and sharing Christian blessings with thousands. She was the only female member of the Syro-Malabar Church to choose such a life.
She had spent time with two religious congregations initially. When she was 22, she joined the Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart, a contemplative order founded by French hermit and martyr Father Charles de Foucauld. Sister Devi left without taking vows because the congregation wound up its operations in India in 1961 when she was still in the novitiate.
Later, she spent two years with the Benedictine Sisters in Bangalore to observe the congregation and explore the possibility of joining them. She left because she felt the urge to become an ascetic.
In September 1974, she began living deep inside the Girnar mountain range.
Many mistook the Catholic nun for a Hindu sanyasi because of her dress and lifestyle.
In an earlier interview, she explained that even though she looked like a Hindu ascetic, she shared about her Catholic identity and the love of Jesus Christ with everyone who visited her.
As she developed health problems, Bishop Jose Chittooparambil of Rajkot asked her to move to the Junagadh parish house in September 2014.
The prelate said Sister Devi had shown “an ideal way” to introduce Christ’s message to people in India.
