Bl. Mariam Thresia was born as the third child of Thoman and Thanda of the Chiramel Mankidiyan family in Puthenchira, a vil¬lage in Thrissur, Kerala, India, on 26th April 1876. Mankidiyan family traces its history to the age of Apostle St. Thomas. The family and the times were most congenial to the flowering of a great saint.

Mariam Thresia drew all her inspiration to love God and even to probe into the mystery of God at an early age, from her mother, a woman of strong faith. While nestled in her mother's lap, a child of three, she asked "Who the father and who the son?” And this was her first theological utterance! Her intense desire was to love God and God alone. "From my early childhood I suffered a tot in order to love God." This is how she begins her autobiography written in obedience to the command of her spiri¬tual father, Rev. Fr. Joseph Vithayathil, who was well aware of the depth of Thresia's spiritual life.

Thresia lost her mother in the year 1888 when she was twelve. This affected the whole family, especially Thresia- Here she be¬gan the search to realize the inner tendings, of her heart. Her yearn¬ings to love God from infancy made her dream of the solitude of wood-hills. She says "at the age 15 the thought of going to the forest haunted my mind. Thinking that it would be dif¬ficult to practise virtues at home, I decided to go to the woods to lead an austere life." She was dissuaded from this venture by one of her sis¬ters-in-law. As the desire to retire into solitude persisted, she thought to enter a con¬vent and disappear from the world. She could not collect Rs.150, the patrimony for en¬tering a convent- So she returned to the idea of running away, into the woods! She writes, "I woke up one midnight (to execute her plan), but I could not move at all. I felt very sad and prayed to God, if my plan is not pleasing to you, I'm ready to give it up now. But please help me to get up. Then and there I regained my former vigour and I gave up the idea." She continued to stay at home peacefully spending the time in prayer and doing everything according to the personal guidance of her spiritual father, the then Parish Priest.

Thresia's life was at this stage turbulent with various mystical experiences as well as tortures and temptations from the devils. She intensely desired and prayed earnestly to get a learned and holy spiritual director who could discern and sift the right from the fake. Her prayer was answered when Rev.Fr. Joseph Vithayathil was appointed vicar of St. Mary's Church, Puthenchira in the year 1902. There began the story of two souls assiduously pilgrimaging to the Delectable mountains.

Thresia was led through mysterious ways until the divine plan about her vocation was revealed. In 1910 Thresia was admitted in the Carmelite third order and she was specially permitted to wear the veil while at home. Her search for the vocation continued. She realized that she was called neither to the congregation of Franciscan Clarists nor to that of the Carmelites.

Her life of prayer and contemplation brought her to a total commitment to the inner voice of her Master. Shattering the age old conventions of pinning women down to the household chores and within the four walls, Thresia set out with .her three compan¬ions to the dying and the destitute, to the wayward and broken homes. Protests and oppositions could not but sharpen her reso¬luteness to listen to the voice from within. She hated none; she had no complaints. The love that surged in her from deep con¬templation of the Lord was the principle of energy in her. "During my meditation I used to be rapt in ecstasy and see visions." It is during these visions that her mission towards others was revealed. She never preached her mission to families in verbal articulations or writings. Her whole life has been a beautiful and powerful ut¬terance of her passion for the Lord and compassion for His people.

When writers of mystical experience and mysticism strain them¬selves for the right words and expressions, Thresia in her own simple way writes in her autobiography, “Jesus came to me to¬gether with Bl. Mary and St. Joseph and gave his heart to me. My spiritual father was with me at that time. I was in ecstasy." This happened on 15th August 1905. She received on her body the five holy wounds of Lord on 27th January 1909 and she bore these holy imprints on her unto death. Meanwhile the devils had their share of torturing and tormenting her. Following the Master closely she also bore the pains of all those who came in contact with her - a life which revealed the ecstasy of suffering in the Lord for the expiation of the sins of the world. On the whole her life looked like a tempestuous ocean on the surface but underneath flowed the calm waters of divine love, peace and serene union. She writes "If our heart is like a mirror nobody can take it away from us. We will shine like a lamp in the presence of God at the end. Is there any other treasure greater than this?"

Her intense desire to withdraw into solitude persisted throughout. She made it known to her spiritual father. Many a time he approached the Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. John Menacherry for permis¬sion to build a separate house of solitude for Thresia and her companions, in vain. Finally the Bishop requested her to enter the Carmelite Convent at Ollur in 1913. She obeyed him and went to the Carmelite Convent and stayed there hardly for two months. The sisters at Ollur were exceptionally happy to accept Thresia. But she felt she was not called there. She heard it in her innermost self. Thresia, who neither failed nor compromised in discerning and embracing the Divine Will, made it clear to Rev. Fr. Joseph Vithayathil. Meanwhile the people of Puthenchira who wanted their Thresia back, appealed to the Bishop. Some how the Bishop also felt it better to send her back. At this juncture he permitted Thresia to live in a house of solitude. Thus Thresia and her companions started living in prayer, penance and love in a house built for them. They continued their mission of family apostolate following a lifestyle approved by Rev. Fr. Joseph Vithayathil. It proved to be the seedling of the congregation of Holy Family when Rt. Rev. Dr. Menacherry officially declared and raised it to the status of a religious congregation in the church on 14th May 1914. Thresia received the religious habit, made her perpetual commitment and became the first superior of the new Congregation on the very day. The name 'Mariam Thresia' given to her directly by Bl. Mary was approved and thereafter she came to be known as 'Mariam Thresia'. Her three companions were accepted as postulants. Mariam Thresia was 38 years old by this time.

Many young women from far and near joined the new Con¬gregation just because of the fame of the holiness of Mother Mariam Thresia. She started a primary school for girls at Puthenchira the very next year. The second convent was inaugu¬rated at Kuzhikkattussery in 1922 and the third convent at Thumpoor in 1926. Mother Mariam Thresia built her convents on land offered to her by the people of the locality who cherished greatly her service and presence.

It was at the blessing of the newly built chapel of the convent at Thumpoor that she got her leg wounded which turned gangrene and resulted in her death on 8th June 1926. She nourished her congregation just for 12 years. As she lost her mother at the age of twelve so did her 'child' lose her at twelve. She was buried at Kuzhikkattussery. Her tomb is a haven of peace, healing and strength for many.

The congregation in its infancy deprived of its Mother, went ahead under the guidance of Rev. Fr. Joseph Vithayathil, the co-founder. The first superior general and council were elected in 1942. Till 1964 the congregation mainly concentrated in the un¬divided diocese of Thrissur (ie., the present Thrissur, Irinjalakuda, and Palakad dioceses). The congregation reached to the mission in the North in the year 1964; she entered the field of higher education with the beginning of St. Joseph's College, Irinjalakuda, the same year itself. Gradually houses were started abroad too. The congregation looks after the destitute, the mentally retarded, the poor and all those who are in need of its service. At present the congregation has 1590 sisters living in 172 communities in various parts of India, Ghana, Germany and Italy. The thrust of every apostolate undertaken anywhere, at any time, is towards family.