Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health

The Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health, also known as Sanctuary of Our Lady of Velankanni, is a Christian shrine located at the town of Velankanni, Tamil Nadu, India. The shrine is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The devotion has existed since the mid-sixteenth century, it is attributed to three separate events which occurred at the site: The apparition of the Madonna and Child to a slumbering shepherd boy, the miraculous healing of a handicapped buttermilk vendor & the rescue of Portuguese sailors from a deadly sea storm.

Initially, a modest chapel was built by the Portuguese from Goa and Bombay, soon after they washed ashore safely in spite of a severe tempest. An annual novena is celebrated and draws nearly 5 million pilgrims each year.

Pope John XXIII raised the Marian shrine to the status of a minor basilica via the pontifical decree Salutem Supplicibus Dilargiens, signed & notarised on 3 November 1962. He called the shrine "the Lourdes of the East" due to the massive influx of pilgrims.

History


Marian apparitions at Velankanni include three of the Virgin of Velankanni in the 16th century, according to oral lore and popular belief. The third noteworthy incident is the reported miraculous rescue of the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay-Bassein, who were sailing away from a deadly monsoon surge and tempest, in the Bay of Bengal in the late 17th century.



The first Marian apparition is said to have occurred in May 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 child. After giving her some milk, he continued on under the hot tropical sun, upon finishing his deliveries he found that the jug was still full of fresh and cool milk. A small shrine was built near the site where the boy encountered the woman, a location that came to be called Maatha Kulam, which means "Mother's well" in Tamil language.

The second Marian apparition is said to have happened in 1597, not far from Maatha Kulam. A beautiful woman with a child in her arms appeared to a crippled boy selling buttermilk. The child asked for a drink of buttermilk. After he drank it, the woman told the boy to visit a gentleman in the next town and ask him to build a chapel in her honour at that location. As the boy set out he realised he had been healed and was no longer lame. A small thatched chapel was built shortly thereafter in honour of "Our Lady of Good Health" or Aarokia Maatha in Tamil.

The third notable incident occurred when a Portuguese ship sailing from Macao to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was caught in extreme weather in the Bay of Bengal. The terrified sailors invoked the aid of the Virgin Mary under her title Our Lady, Star of the Sea. The raging storm suddenly subsided and the entire crew of 150 on board the ship were saved from capsizing. This happened on 8 September, the feast day of the Nativity of Mary. In thanksgiving the sailors rebuilt the shrine, and continued to visit and donate to the cause of the shrine whenever their voyages brought them to the area.

The shrine that began as a thatched chapel in the mid-sixteenth century and became a parish church in 1771, when Indian Catholics were persecuted in the erstwhile Dutch Coromandel, after the Luso-Dutch war was waged by Dutch Protestants.

Significance and pilgrimage
For Goan and Konkani people, she is called "Shantadurga" (most compassionate one). This especially includes use of Kotimaram or Dwajasthamba, which has been described as an extended influence of Hinduism on Catholicism, thus making the basilica a meeting point of two of the major religions of the world.

The church it is dedicated to Our Lady of Good Health. The Virgin Mary is depicted wearing a sari. The usual times for pilgrimage are during the annual festival between 29 August to 8 September, Holy Week and Christmas. Some pilgrims, instead of using a mode of transport, perform "walking pilgrimages" to it. They attend mass, novenas, flag-hoisting and carry a palanquin of Mary in a procession. A major event is the procession, where only women are allowed to pull the first car and a statue of Mary is in the last and most decorated one. People of other religions also take part. The pilgrims sometimes shave their heads as an offering and perform ear-piercing ceremonies, both being Hindu traditions. Another ritual considered sacred is dipping oneself in the pond. There is a holy flag which is lowered to signal the end of the festival.

Due to the number of pilgrim visits during festival season, the Indian Railways introduced special train services to the town of Velankanni.

Architecture
The basilica is built in the Gothic style of architecture. The southern side was extended in 1928 and the northern in 1933. The Shrine Basilica contains three chapels, as well as Our Lady's Tank, Church Museum, Priests' Residence, Offering Center, Stations of the Cross, mysteries of the rosary, Shrine Mega Mahal and Vailankanni Beach. The building is painted in white, except for the roof that is made of red tiles.

The early part of the 20th century marked rivalry between Jesuits and Franciscans regarding their influence on missionary work in Velankanni. In 1928, the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was demolished and the statues were brought to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Health; in 1933 the shrine was expanded with two new wings, to the right and to the left of the 'Main Altar', meeting the nave at right angles.

A spacious vestry was provided immediately behind the altar. Thus the entire sacred edifice began to assume the shape of a Latin cross. Right over the center of the ancient main altar was the miraculous image of Our Lady of Good Health.

In 1956, a new welcome arch was blessed and opened by Bishop Rajarethinam Arokiasamy Sundaram. The illuminated arch stood to show the way to eager pilgrims who sought the protection of Mary. In January 1961, a new central altar, executed in white marble, replaced the former one made of cement concrete. In 1974–75, an extension of the basilica was built behind the existing central altar to accommodate the multilingual pilgrims. The extension included a two-storied church with 93 ft high dome and 82 ft high gothic spirals. It was designed to resemble the Basilica in Lourdes, France.

List of parish priests
The basilica first became a parish in 1771. The list of parish priests (mainly Portuguese) from 1771 until now is as follows:

In popular culture
The basilica is a recurring setting in the Tamil film Annai Velankanni (1971). It also appears as a minor setting in the Malayalam-Tamil bilingual film Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (2022) and the Malayalam film Pulimada (2023).