The sudden discovery of ‘saints’ in India started with the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1980s and then it resurfaced with the vigour after he called to plant the Cross in Asia during his visit to India in 1999. Then Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government was in power and the Pope made a blunt gesture to Hindus choosing the Diwali season to proclaim the planting of the Cross. Soon Alphonsa was made a saint. ‘The first woman saint of India’ screamed the English media, forgetting India’s own rich tradition of women saints dating back thousands of years. One of the important glorified acts of Alphonsa was her burning of letters from a bishop. With such a person canonised as role model, goodness knows what kind of obedience is sought in the convents of Kerala where there is already many allegations of abuse and exploitation of nuns. This sudden discovery of brown-skinned saints by the Vatican is very much similar to Western beauty contests suddenly discovering Miss Worlds and Miss Universes from India when they wanted to create a huge market for their beauty products in India. We can expect more ‘saints’ approved by Rome in the near future.