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The Lourdes of South India ... Vailankanni A Ganesh Nadar
VailankanniThe bus reached Vailankanni at 6 am. We had passed lush green fields and many small rivers during the last hour. For the past half hour we started seeing bright blue boards that demanded our attention. 'This way to Vailankanni'. 'This way to Vailankanni'. 'This way to Vailankanni'. I could not really lose my way, could I?
Velankanni is the Indian Christian world’s Tirupati. The first mass in Tamil had already began at 5.45 am. People are walking leisurely towards the church. I opted to wash up first at the Golden Sand, where I am staying. My hotel had a board that proclaimed: 'If everybody swept the area in front of their house, it would take half an hour to clean all of Paris'. "May be it is easier to clean Paris than Bombay," I said. Or maybe there was some vague link because Vailankanni is also called the Lourdes of the East. We eat at the Hotel Chandra, which is clean and filling, but as expensive as Madras city, before heading for the church. Though it is only 9 am, the basilica is crowded. The church is huge. Two young ladies are walking on their knees from the door to the altar. Some groups are dressed in saffron. Pants, shirts, saris, salwar-kurtas… all saffron. A trend picked up probably from Hindu temples, where Ayya devotees wear purple, Amman devotees wear red and Murugan devotees wear green. The main shrine -- though it hardly looks the way it apparently used to; lots of additions have been made – has a main decorative arch built by the Portuguese, that has been left alone. Decorating the high altar are rare porcelain plates that illustrate scenes from the Bible. They were brought by the Portuguese from China. A path from the main shrine leads the pilgrim to the place where Annai first appeared before a shepherd boy. As the story goes, a lame boy was selling yoghurt to passers-by. In the afternoon while he was resting, a lady with a child appeared before him. She asked him for some of the yoghurt for the child. The boy gladly gave it. She told him to go to a Catholic gentleman in the village and to tell him to build a church for her there. The boy told her, "I am lame. I cannot go to the village now." Years later a Portuguese ship sailing from China to Colombo ran into a fierce storm. The sailors prayed fervently to Mother Mary to save them and promised to build a church where they landed. They storm subsided and the ship reached the shores of Vailankanni on September 8. Local fishermen took them to the Church of Our Lady. The Portuguese built the church to replace the shack that was already there. On subsequent visits they brought many gifts for the church and further embellished the shrine. September 8 is now the day of Vailankanni's annual festival. The first floor of the main basilica houses the blessed sacrament. The annexe basilica was built in 1975. It is used on special occasions and during the annual festival. The church has a hardware shop and a carpenter shed. There is also a unit that manufactures soap and washing powder. There is a huge generator room that can supply electricity around the clock if the need arises. Two hundred and twenty-five cleaners, I discovered, are employed to keep the place sparkling clean. I want to meet the head of the parish on the first floor. There is a crowd waiting to meet him. I wonder how long it will take if he meets each one individually. Five hours, likely. But suddenly the doors are thrown open. And everybody troops in together. A group of Hindu swamis have come to meet him. They give the father small gifts. After listening to them patiently, he gives them a picture of Annai and blesses them. A young couple want a special mass conducted for their marriage anniversary. They also want to gift a sari to Our Lady. He asks a young priest to help them.
The church is spread over a very large area, which is exceptionally well maintained and green; lots of beautiful trees. And lots of homes. A home for the Aged, an orphanage, the Mercy Home for the Handicapped and a hospital where people are treated at a nominal charge. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity run a home for the aged and handicapped. There is a higher secondary school nearby and an English medium school and a girls school. The church runs schools and chapels in four villages. In fact the whole neighbourhood is an island of charity with multiple charitable and religious activities taking place. The more I toured the place the more I was startled by the range, variety and depth of the activities. There is also an institution that offered a diploma in Mariology, affiliated with Rome. I needed a dictionary to figure that one out. Mariology is the study of the holy mother. I learnt that 15 students are enrolled for the course; laymen as well as members of the parish. There is also a meditation centre and a retreat home with 80 rooms. Visiting priests can stay here free, but have to pay for their food.
Nearby is a ‘Tonsure Hall' where pilgrims shave their heads. Up ahead is the Museum of Offerings that sells blessed oil. The museum had innumerable letters of thanks, lovely articles in silver and gold to Annai for blessings received; many of them for stolen jewellery Our Lady helped recover. People had donated eyes, hands, legs, stethoscopes and hearts made of silver and gold depending on the ailment she had cured. Everything is framed and kept tidily. Some had donated miniature gold or silver cars, cows, crosses. Some had even donated mangalsutras. One person had made a replica of the church with coins. On a shelf are pieces of wood which had floated to Vailankanni from all over the world. The wood was hollow. People sent messages and offerings to the mother in these pieces of wood. Legend says that the messages always reach the shores of Vailankanni. Even coconuts with distinguishing features are preserved in the museum. They are said to be offerings from Fiji that had come via the ocean. Countless miracles and cures are attributed to offerings. A few too many to relate here. I heard about a 45-year-old woman who held Annai responsible for the child she had conceived at that late age. A retired Hindu school teacher related to me at length his experience at Vailankanni. Murugesan worked in a Christian school. Father Francis, who worked in his school, took him to Vailankanni, when he grumbled to the father that he had four daughters and deeply desired a son. The following year he got a son. In memory of the Matha (mother in Tamil), he named his son Mathavan. Thrice he took his son to the church and shaved his head there in thanksgiving. Photography is prohibited inside the church. Unheeding Murugesan clicked a photograph of the altar. When he printed the photographs: 35 out of the 36 shots were fine. "The photograph of the altar depicted verum pugaimoottam (there was only white smoke)." Outside the main shrine is a small Tamil-style chapel or kursadi. It has an image of Annai with Jesus on her lap, after he is brought down from the cross. The flag pole, Muthuswamy explained, was said to contain a piece from the original Portuguese ship which landed here.
People of all religions visit Vailankanni throughout the year. During Onam one can see lots of Keralites. During Dassera one can bump into plenty of folks from Karnataka. And during the annual festival a lot of Bombayites descend. Foreign tourists are frequent visitors too. Some come with worries. Some with illness. Some to say thanks. But they all exit from the church with an identical look of peace, serenity and satisfaction. | |
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