A 43-year-old Catholic nurse in India died on Christmas Day from breast cancer, two years after she refused her doctor’s advice to get an abortion, so she could begin chemotherapy.
Sapna Tracy, who already had seven children, refused to sacrifice the life of her child, giving birth to her daughter Philomena in December 2015.
“I visited the family on Christmas Day, the day she died, and her husband was carrying the baby in his arms, saying ‘Praise be to Jesus.’ Sapna stood for life. Sapna stood for being pro-life. She wasn’t afraid,” Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhath, of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Thrissur, told Crux.
The nurse lived with her husband, Chittilappally Joju, and her children, all under the age of 15.
Both had been active in various Catholic organizations as young people, and had been working with pro-life advocacy in their married life.
She worked as a nurse at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Faridabad gave an award to the couple to honor them for their large family.
“This Catholic couple was inspirational in their witness of the Gospel message,” said Faridabad Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara.
He told Crux he personally baptized Philomena, as well as the couple’s previous child.
“In our Eparchy, since 2012, I have initiated that any couple having four or more children, the children will be baptized by the bishop,” Bharanikulangara.
Tracy’s husband has been telling the story of his wife to the people of India hoping it will provide an example.
