<b> India gets its first woman saint</b>
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A Catholic nun, Sister Alphonsa, has been made India's first female saint, at an event presided over by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.
The canonisation was greeted with delight by Christians in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where Sister Alphonsa lived until her death in 1946.
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As the Pope declared Sister Alphonsa to be a saint, church bells rang out and firecrackers were set off in celebration in her normally sleepy home town.
Thousands of worshippers had crowded around the small church there to watch the ceremony, which was broadcast live from Rome.
They heard the Pope say that his prayers were with India's tiny Christian minority at the moment.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<img src='http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45101000/jpg/_45101273_popeap216.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A Catholic nun, Sister Alphonsa, has been made India's first female saint, at an event presided over by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.
The canonisation was greeted with delight by Christians in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where Sister Alphonsa lived until her death in 1946.
..
As the Pope declared Sister Alphonsa to be a saint, church bells rang out and firecrackers were set off in celebration in her normally sleepy home town.
Thousands of worshippers had crowded around the small church there to watch the ceremony, which was broadcast live from Rome.
They heard the Pope say that his prayers were with India's tiny Christian minority at the moment.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->