Elizabeth Anikuzhikattil, a Catholic mother whose 15 children included five priests, a bishop, and four religious sisters, died at the age of 94 on July 14, reports the Catholic News Agency.

“We mourn the death of a holy mother,” said Fr. Augustine Kootala, a family friend, in an interview with India’s Bosco Information Service.

Elizabeth Anikuzhikattil and her husband Luke, who died in 2006, raised eight boys and seven girls. Four of her daughters became religious sisters. Two joined the Sacred Heart Sisters in Kerala, one is a Salesian Sister, and another is a Franciscan Missionary of Mary.

Six of her sons have become priests, with the oldest going on to become the current bishop of the Diocese of Idukki in southern India.

One of Anikuzhikattil’s sons, Fr. Jose Anikuzhikattil, remembered his mother’s perseverance in raising 15 children during the “frontier days” of a settlement in Idukki. The family moved to Idukki in 1949 with the first agricultural migrants to the area.

Fr. Anikuzhikattil said the family lived in a large tree house and frequently had to face wild elephants and other animals in the jungle who were displeased with the human intrusion.

Elizabeth Anikuzhikattil was buried at Holy Family Parish near Munnar, India on July 18.

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Mother of six priests and four religious sisters mourned in India (Catholic News Agency)

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Screenshot from Catholic News Agency report