Ali's anniversary and an Indian connection

Ali, pictured with Koteswari in January 2006,
had great love for 'her' children in India.

The ninth anniversary of Ali's death falls, as it does each year, on the feast of the great "Apostle of the Indies," St Francis Xavier.  He died 461 years before Ali, on 3rd December 1552, and the shrine with his incorrupt body is in Goa, India.  

I had hoped to have an Introduction to Ali ready for publication by this ninth anniversary of Ali's passing to eternal life, and I regret that it has still not emerged.  Please God, it will be published before next year's tenth anniversary so that others will become aware of Ali's extraordinary life.  Others will then be able to consider whether Ali, who had a great love for India and its "poorest of the poor" people, might be regarded as exceptional a saint as St Francis Xavier.  

St Francis Xavier was canonised 70 years after his death, in 1622, and today he is known and loved by millions in India and around the world. It is my conviction that Ali is similarly destined to be known and loved by millions, and I think that, just as she was greatly loved by "her" children in India, especially those in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, countless numbers of people - in India and throughout the world - will come to know and love her. 

Ali, happy to be with her children in India, in January 2003