Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health

The St. Mary's Basilica of Velankanni ( Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health - " Pilgrimage Basilica of Our Lady of Health ' ) is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage church in Velankanni in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The " Lourdes of the East" visit alone during the nine-day pilgrimage festival with its peak on September 8, two million pilgrims annually. The neo-Gothic basilica was awarded the 1962 rank of a minor basilica.

History

To 1550 the Portuguese settled in the 12 km northern Nagapattinam. Portuguese Franciscans spread Catholic Christianity in the region. From around 1600 Marian apparitions have been handed down in front of a shepherd boy and a paralyzed boy in the place of pilgrimage today, and first miracle cures. The first chapel with a venerated miraculous image was created during these years. A Portuguese crew enlarged and embellished it as a votive offering after being rescued from drowning.

Velankanni was initially a branch church of the parish of Nagapattinam. 1771 the place became an independent parish. Pastoral care was incumbent until 1889 the Franciscan Order.

The original chapel was extended first to the east to a spacious nave. As the number of pilgrims grew rapidly in the late 19th century, began in 1917, the expansion of neo-Gothic basilica. The transepts of today's eastern half and the choir behind the old main altar with the picture of grace created until 1933.

After the founding of the Diocese of Tanjore 1953 Our Lady of Good Health was at the instigation of the first bishop Rajarethinam Arokiasamy Sundaram secondary patroness of the diocese, and the pilgrimage church was built by Pope John XXIII. for minor basilica raised. Then began as a response to the multilingual pilgrims growing a new intensive construction phase. Hostel and meeting rooms and other chapels in the pilgrimage district were built, and by 1974 the basilica was enlarged to twice its west.

Architecture

The large, white-plastered Marie Basilica of Velankanni consists of two connected churches, both on cross floor plan. The eastern with the twin tower facade portal in the east and the representative servatives octagonal dome was completed in 1933. The 1974 finished two-storey western half with forecourt to the west and curving ramp stairways is inspired by the churches in the district of Lourdes pilgrimage.