CHENNAI: As the Pope canonised Sister Alphonsa of Kerala in Vatican, a small group of devotees congregated on the pavement outside a shrine dedicated to her in Chennai on Sunday for a mass officiated by Fr Stanley Sebastian.R K Ignatious, a former army man who settled here after an early retirement, built the chapel in 1947 on Greenways Road.The family-owned chapel, the only one for Sister Alphonsa in Tamil Nadu, can barely accommodate four persons.“During my grandfather’s time.MGR used to visit our chapel for prayers,” said Annie Johnson, Ignatious’s granddaughter.Actors Chandra Babu, Nagesh and Radha Ravi also visited the chapel regularly.Businessman V G Paneerdhas was a regular worshipper at the shrine.The family fondly remembers Shankar — of yesteryear’s music director duo Shankar-Ganesh — organising a musical concert every year on July 28 when they conducted a mass on the death anniversary of Sister Alphonsa at the chapel. “For almost thirty years till his death in 2003, he did it keeping up his vow taken at the shrine to hold the musical evening if he became famous,” said Sushila Pratap Raj, another granddaughter of Ignatious.Sushila said the shrine came into being after Sister Alphonsa appeared in her grandfather’s dream.
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