VATICAN CITY: Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Sunday called on Pope Francis and presented him 'Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi' and caparisoned elephant of Kerala temple festivals, reflecting India's age-old traditions.
Muraleedharan, who led the Indian delegation at a ceremony in the Vatican City in which the Pope declared Indian nun Mariam Thresia and four others as Saints, also met Archbishop Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States within the Holy See's Secretariat of State (Vatican's equivalent of foreign minister).
During the meeting, the Pope requested the minister to convey his regards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indian nun Thresia, who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family in Thrissur in May 1914, was raised to the highest position within the centuries-old institution during the open-air mass attended by thousands of people from across the world, including India.
The nun from Kerala was canonised along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini.