Our Lady of Velankanni, Nagapattinam; Basilica
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Introduction
The Velankanni Shrine is located in the Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu. It draws pilgrims from all over the world, including Christians, Hindus, and Muslims. A non-Christian devotee handed over a statue of Our Lady of Velankanni to the shrine.
Briefly
Velankanni On the shores of the Bay of Bengal, the quiet district of Nagapattinam is home to the most revered of all Marian sanctuaries in the world.The Velankanni Basilica, commonly referred to as Our Lady of Good Health or Sacred Arogya Matha Church, is renowned to have miraculous healing powers that brings in about 20 million devotees from all over the world, every year.
Located about 350 km south of Chennai, the church is easily accessible by rail, road and air. Nagapattinam, 15 km away from Velankanni, is well connected via rail transport to all major cities in India through Chennai around one grand structure called the Meenakshi Amman Temple. Located at the southern bank of the Vaigai river, the temple is devoted to Goddess Meenakshi, an avatar of Goddess Parvati. Thirugnanasambandar, the Shaivate saint, has mentioned the temple in his songs, which date back to the early 7th century AD. The temple has been an important lifeline in the his and Trichy. Tiruchirapalli International Airport, situated at a distance of about 165 km from the church.
Some details
Velankanni is home to one of the country's biggest Catholic pilgrimage centres. The Catholic Basilica devoted to Our Lady of Good Health is popularly known as the "Lourdes of the East". The origins of this church can be traced back to the 16th century and its founding is attributed to three miracles : The apparition of Mary and Jesus to a slumbering shepherd boy, the curing of a lame buttermilk vendor, and the survival of Portuguese sailors assaulted by a violent sea storm. It is built in the Gothic style, was modified by Portuguese and then further expanded later on due to the influx of pilgrims. The church building was raised to the status of basilica in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.
Annually, 20 million pilgrims flock to the shrine from all over India and abroad, out which an estimated 3 million people visit the shrine during its annual festival from 29 August to 8 September. The 11-day annual festival concludes with the celebration of the Feast on 8 September.
Tradition recounts that Mother Mary appeared with the Infant Jesus in this small hamlet at the end of the 16th or in the early 17th century. Ever since, Velankanni is the most important destination and almost the synthesis of all Marian Sanctuaries for the pilgrims of the world. The crowds of pilgrims come here regardless of creeds and languages.
Our Lady of Good Health, also known as Our Lady of Velankanni, is a celebrated Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary believed to have appeared in Velankanni Town, Tamil Nadu, India. According to traditional beliefs, the Marian apparition is said to have occurred to a young boy delivering milk to the neighbourhood when the Virgin Mary, carrying the child Jesus, is said to have appeared. This apparition has not been approved by the Holy See.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health erected by the Portuguese and the Indians stands at this site. The iconic depiction of the Madonna is unique in that it is one of two only icons where Mary is portrayed wearing an Indian Sari, while the other statue is said to have been buried with Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor. The basilica is known as a site for pilgrims from all over India and its assembly of multilingual prayers every Christmas.
The biggest miracles
• Our Lady appeared to a Hindu boy carrying milk to a customer's home. She asked for milk for her Son and the boy gave her some.
• The Basilica in Vailankanni was left intact after a tsunami destroyed all the buildings both in front of and behind it.
• The Dawson family from Kammanahalli escaped from tsunami waves in Velankanni.
• Water started trickling down a statue of Jesus Christ at a Catholic church in Mumbai. Some began collecting the holy water and the Church of Our Lady of Velankanni began to promote it as a site of pilgrimage.
History of Velankanni
There are no historical documents or records about the apparitions of Mary at Velankanni. Oral tradition is the source for the two apparitions of the Blessed Mother of Velankanni in the 16th century and the saving of the Portuguese sailors from a tempest in the Bay of Bengal in the later 17th century.
The first apparition is said to have occurred in May of 1570, when a local shepherd boy was delivering milk to a nearby house. Along the way he met a beautiful woman holding a child, who asked for some milk for the little one. After giving her the milk, he continued on his way, and upon making the delivery discovered that the jug was now completely full of fresh, cool milk. A small shrine was built near the site where the boy encountered the woman, a location that came to be called Matha Kulam, which means Our Lady’s Pool.
The second apparition is said to have happened in 1597, not far from Matha Kulam. A beautiful woman with a young boy in her arms appeared to a young crippled boy selling buttermilk. The little boy asked for some buttermilk, and after he drank it, the woman asked the boy selling buttermilk to visit a gentleman in the next town and ask him to build a chapel in her honor at that location. The boy set out quickly and realized that he was no longer lame. A small thatched chapel was quickly built in honor of Our Lady of Health, called in Tamil “Arokia Matha.”
The third incident occurred when a Portuguese ship sailing from Macau to Sri Lanka was caught in a storm in the Bay of Bengal. They invoked the help of the Blessed Virgin under her title "Star of the Sea". The storm subsided and the 150 men on board were saved. It was September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary. In thanksgiving, the sailors rebuilt the Shrine to Our Lady of Good Health, and continued to enhance it whenever their voyages brought them to the area.
The shrine that started as a thatched chapel in the mid-sixteenth century became a parish church in 1771 when Catholics in India were under persecution from the Dutch. Later in 1962 it was granted a Special status of a Minor Basilica by Pope John XXIII. The shrine of Velankanni was elevated to the status of 'Minor Basilica' and merged with the Major Basilica of Mary (Mary majore) in Rome on 3 November 1962 by Pope John XXIII.
Velankanni was a part of the parish of Nagapattinam, but as pilgrims began to pour into Velankanni, it was raised to the status of an independent parish in 1771, and Fr. Antonio de Rozario the last parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Nagapattinam, was appointed the first Parish priest of Velankanni. Nagapattinam had always been under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocese of Mylapore. During that period the Diocese of Mylapore was administered under the Portuguese 'Padroado' (patronage). Under the Padroado system, the king of Portugal in Europe met all the expenses incurred by the Diocese of Mylapore, which remained under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiffs.
Until 1847 the priests of St. Franciscan Missionaries who had looked after the province of Goa and Mylapore also looked after Nagapattinam and Velankanni. The Franciscan origin and ownership of the Shrine was also perpetuated, by giving the place of honor to two Franciscan saints, St. Anthony of Lisbon and St. Francis of Assisi, on either side of the miraculous image of 'Our Lady', on the High Altar until 1961. Besides the last parish priest, Miguel Francisco Fernandez, who was of the Franciscan order, controlled the parish of Velankanni till 1889. In 1890 the parish was handed over to diocesan priests.
Thereafter, the diocesan priests of the Diocese of Mylapore were in charge of Velankanni. In 1952, when the new Diocese of Thanjavur came into being, and Velankanni became a part of the new diocese, the priests of Thanjavur Diocese became the custodians of the Shrine. The administration of the new Diocese was imagesorarily placed under the apostolic administration of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Louis Mathias, S.D.B., who was then the Archbishop of the new Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore.
On March 19, 1953, His Excellency the Rev. Dr. R. Arokiasamy Sundaram, DD., L. C. L., M. A., a priest of Mylapore Archdiocese was appointed as the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Thanjavur. He assumed charge of his Diocese on March 24, 1953. Velankanni being situated in the Thanjavur District came under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Thanjavur. The Rev. Dr. R. Arokiasamy Sundaram showed keen interest in the development of Velankanni Shrine and granted special spiritual privileges. 'Our Lady of Health Velankanni' became the second patroness of our newly erected Diocese.
Elevation of the Shrine to the status of a Basilica
The greatest honour that can be conferred to a Church is to elevate it to the status of a Basilica. The word ‘Basilica’ is derived from the Greek word ‘Basilike’ and it originally signified a Royal Hall. In course of time this word has come to mean a large and beautiful hall. In ancient times kings from all over the world in general, and from Rome in particular, constructed large hall for administrative purposes. The first hall bearing the name of Basilica existed in Athens.
Jesus Christ being the King of Kings, and His Churches being His audience halls, the larger Christian Churches in Rome came to be called Basilicas. Today, a Basilica is a consecrated Church usually built with the front facing the East, and generally constructed in one of the classical styles of architecture. It is oblong in shape with a broad nave ending in an apse. It is now stipulated that a church, in order to be called a Basilica, should contain some work of art, or it should contain some work of art, or it should house the body of a saint or a celebrated image much venerated in the land, or be a pre-eminent place of pilgrimage.
His Excellency, Dr. R.A. Sundaram D.D., L.C.L., M.A., the first Bishop of the diocese of Thanjavur, earnestly petitioned Pope John XXIII to raise the Shrine of Velankanni to the Status of a Basilica and also requested His Holiness to enrich it with all the privileges attached to a Basilica for the spiritual benefit of the pilgrims.
In 1962, when Bishop Sundaram went to Rome to attend the second session of the Second Vatican Council, he reiterated his request to the Holy Father personally to raise the Shrine of Our Lady of Velankanni to the lofty status of a Minor Basilica. After examining the request carefully, His Holiness Pope John XXIII, of saintly memory, issued orders raising the Shrine to the exalted status of a Minor Basilica. Thus the Shrine of Velankanni became the Shrine Basilica of Velankanni in November 1962 and was linked to the St. Mary’s Major Basilica in Rome.
Feast day
September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, is also commemorated as the feast of Our Lady of Good Health. The celebration starts on 29th August and ends on the day of the feast. The feast day prayers are said in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Konkani, Hindi and English. • Feast is celebrated from 29th August to 8th September - 8th September the Birth Day of the Blessed Virgin Mary. • More than 20 lakh pilgrims from all the corners of India and from other Countries throng the Shrine. • Holy Mass is celebrated in six languages, fourteen times a day during the Feast. • Car Procession of Our Lady of Health takes place at 8.00 p.m. • Everyday hoisting of the Our Lady's flag, takes place at 12.00 noon. • The Grand Annual Feast commences with the hoisting of Our Lady's Flag at 6.30 p.m. on 29th August. The Bishop of Thanjavur is the main celebrant on this day. • The Feast concludes with the dismounting of Our Lady's Flag at 6.00 p.m. on 8th September. The Rector & Parish Priest is the main celebrant on the concluding Mass. • The Feast Mass is celebrated on 8th September at 6.15 a.m. in the Shrine open-air auditorium, presided over by the Bishop of Thanjavur.
Miracles
The tsunami of 2004
Fr. Mieczysław Piotrowski S.Chr., A tsunami stopped, Love One Another! , 2015
On 26 December 2004, a huge, twelve-metre-high tsunami stopped at the threshold of the Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health in Vailankanni, India, with a congregation of 2000 people attending Mass inside.
The Basilica in Vailankanni stands 100 metres from the seashore, on the same levelas the other buildings around it. From a scientific point of view, it is inexplicable how the tsunami, which reached half a kilometre inland, destroying all the buildings both in front of and behind the basilica, left it intact. All the structures around the basilica were completely destroyed by the masses of sea water.Over 1000 people who were outside the basilica died in the disaster, while over 2000 people attending Mass were not even aware of what was happening.
The bishop of the local diocese, Devadass Ambrose, said that a supernatural intervention of God had taken place and that it was an incredible miracle. He explained that a bus depot located behind the shrine, 500 metres from the shore, was flooded and houses and hotels around the basilica were totally destroyed by a 12-metre-high wave. Why did that wave stop in front of the shrine gates, which are 100 metres from the beach? There is only one answer: it was an extraordinary act of God, protecting the shrine and the people inside it. In a press release of 27 January 2005, Bishop Devadass unequivocally said that we had witnessed a great miracle.
Professor Henryk Szydłowski believes this to be the greatest miracle of the twenty-first century.
2004: The tsunami and the Dawson family
BANGALORE: Dont be afraid, I am with you says a sticker with a serene Jesus Christ on it. And the Dawson family believes whole-heartedly that Jesus was with them in Velankanni that fateful Sunday.
The family of six is back in Bangalore "intact and in full", with two glowing statues of Mother Mary and the picture of Christ. They recalled their return from "the jaws of death". The six, along with Rohan (6), reached Velankanni on December 23, with great holiday plans.
But the lazy Sunday got to them. "We went for the early morning Mass, and planned to get to the beach by 9 am. But at 9.30, we were still breakfasting, and were in our beachwear. In fact, we did not get rooms in the lodges of the shrine, so we were at a private lodge. We are glad nothing worked as per schedule," said Reena Dawson (25), who works with a call centre.
All of a sudden, the family saw "cattle running out on the roads, followed by thousands of people. First we thought it was a communal riot. Then someone said the ocean had exploded. We ran in the opposite direction to realise that water was approaching from that side too," reminisced C.I. Dawson.
It was a river that meets the ocean on the other side, where excess water was flowing. "We were on a patch of land where water was coming in from both sides. We saw a school near by and ran to the terrace and looked at the ocean. We were with many locals who were watching their children, families and homes being pulled away by the waves," added Reena.
At 11 am, the waves struck again. "We lost all hope. We knew we were going to die. At 2 pm, we were asked to evacuate. We walked barefoot in swimwear through the floods, pushing floating bodies. From nowhere, an auto driver came and asked if we wanted to be dropped somewhere.
Unknown people appeared and helped us, it was a chain of miracles," added Reena. A 15-member group from the MEG quarters in Ulsoor also got lucky. They were a safe distance from the sea, but the tsunami reached them. Helped by strangers, they waded to safety.
But to a 10-member yoga group from Lalbagh, Providence was not so kind. The five men in the group were paying their breakfast bill at a roadside hotel and survived, but the five women were on the beach when the tsunami struck. Four are presumed dead, while schoolteacher M.S. Radha survived. "We had been waiting for the men to come with the camera. When they did not turn up, we started moving towards the shore. I heard a terrible sound and saw a gigantic wave in the middle of the sea. Within seconds, I felt myself thrown underwater and being dragged.
Somebody helped me ashore and I learnt that I was nearly 2 km away from where I had been standing," said Radha. It was also a miracle for Lincoln, his wife Kasturi, their children Dhanya and 10-month-old Sujay. They were staying on the second floor of a lodge in Velankanni, and had planned to attend the Tamil mass at 8 am.
But Dhanya told her parents that she would like to go for the mass in English at 9 am. They agreed to little Dhanyas demand, not dreaming that their daughters decision would save their lives. While they were still in the lodge, huge waves struck the building. Water gushed on to the second floor, forcing them to move to the floor above.
Lincoln carried his children through neck-deep water and hitched a ride to the railway station in a jeep.
Shrines of Our Lady of Velankanni
Kalmady: a Hindu’s devotion
Udupi, Oct 22: It was a historical day for Kalmady parishioners on Sunday October 21. A miraculous incident took place at the Velankanni Shrine here in Kalmady. A non-Christian devotee handed over a statue of Our Lady of Velankanni to the shrine which was in his house for more than a year.
Umesh, a resident of Kidiyoor village, works as a real estate agent. He had sold a one acre plot to a Mumbai based businessman named Paul long back in Kadike. The plot was near to the seashore and was continuously hit by sea erosion. Paul established a statue of Our Lady of Velankanni and all his difficulties solved. He used to celebrate every Christmas in his resort in Kadike and worship Our Lady of Velankanni. Later, he sold the land to a non-Catholic. At this point, the statue of Our Lady of Velankanni was given to another friend of Umesh. Umesh himself had delivered that statue to his Christian friend’s home.
“After six months, I was eager to see the statue which I was given to my Christian friend in Udupi. When I saw the statue lying in a corner of his home, I was hurt. I decided to take the statue. I was a great devotee of Our Lady of Velankanni since my childhood. I brought the statue to my home. My own mother also supported me in this,” says Umesh.
“Many miracles have happened through Our Lady of Velankanni in my life. My friend who was in coma for several days had become normal after I wholeheartedly prayed to Our Lady of Velankanni. I had prayed for the successful delivery of one of my friend’s wife. Our Lady of Velankanni has showered all her blessings on me and my family. From the past one and half year, the statue was in my house and no one knew about it except my family members,” he adds.
Fr Alban D’souza, parish priest of Kalmady church, blessed the statue and installed it inside the church. On the occasion he said, “Let Our Lady of Velankanni continue to shower her blessings on Umesh’s family and friends. Let our relationship continue all our lives. This statue of Our Lady of Velankanni will be worshipped with great respect in our church and every year during the annual feast it will be taken in procession.”
The shrine of Our Lady of Velankanni here in Kalmady is world famous. Many miracles have happened in this shrine. Recently, the new church building was constructed.
The statue was brought in procession from Umesh’s house in Kidiyoor to Kalmady Church. A large of devotees took part in the proceedings.
