Sister Kausalya Rajendren was studying for a degree in mathematics. (Photo supplied)
The body of a Catholic nun was recovered from a well in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a day after she accidentally fell into the well close to her convent.
The deceased was a member of the Eastern Province of the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo, an international religious congregation of Catholic women working in India and abroad.
The congregation has ruled out any foul play in the death of 25-year-old Sister Kausalya Rajendren.
Firefighters recovered her body from a 30-meter-deep open well close to St. Charles Arts and Science College in Eraiyur in Kallakurichi district where she was doing her bachelor of science degree in mathematics. The college is run by her congregation.
“The deceased took her first profession close to three years back. She was very studious and eager to do her higher studies in mathematics and therefore she was admitted to our college this year,” said provincial Sister Amali Anbarasi.
Sister Rajendren attended college on Feb. 16 and later returned to the convent 800 meters away.
We completed all the legal formalities and buried her body in the congregation cemetery in Ammoor village. Her father and other relatives attended the funeral
“On her return, she went to wash clothes and met a two-and-half-year-old boy of the neighbors who was sitting in a makeshift tent in the field just inside the boundary of the convent’s land,” Sister Anbarasi told UCA News on Feb. 18.
The young nun offered a sweet to the boy, with whom she was friendly, before accidentally falling into the well as she returned to her convent.
The child’s grandparents sensed something was wrong when the child kept looking at the well.
“They had seen the nun there with the child but when he was showing some unusual signs of going towards the well, they went there and found the slipper of the nun floating on the water,” Sister Anbarasi said.
The grandparents alerted the convent and their neighbors, who also informed the police and fire service.
On Feb. 17, firemen fished out her body from a corner of the well. It was taken for a post-mortem examination at the nearest government hospital.
“We completed all the legal formalities and buried her body in the congregation cemetery in Ammoor village,” Sister Anbarasi said. “Her father and other relatives attended the funeral.”
The cause of her death will be revealed by the autopsy report.
Whenever such incidents happen in the Indian Church, they are usually suspected to be suicide or murder, but this case has not raised any such suspicions.
India has recorded nearly 20 suspected suicides since 1987 involving novices and sisters serving in Catholic religious communities, mostly in the southern state of Kerala.
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