Our Lady of Good Health at Vailankanni
Apparitions of Our Lady of Good Health at Vailankanni
This Shrine has been dedicated to Our Lady of Good Health known as Annai Vailankanni in Tamil(local language). The Apparitions of Our Mother at Vailankanni has been the inspiration to found this Shrine. The history behind the global fame of Our Lady of Good Health is founded on three events that took place intermittently since the 16th Century at Vailankanni, in Nagapattinam district, in India.
First Apparition
The foremost incident is the Apparition of Our Lady, Mother of Jesus, which occurred during the pleasant daybreak on a sunny day, sometime during the sixteenth century. Our Lady with her infant son appeared to a Hindu boy carrying milk to a customer’s home. While he rested under a banyan tree near a tank (pond), Our Lady appeared to him and asked for milk for her son and the boy gave her some. On reaching the customer’s home, the boy apologized for his lateness and the reduced amount of milk by relating the incident that occurred on his way. On inspection, the man found the milk pot to be full and realized that something miraculous had happened. That man, also a Hindu, wanting to see the place where the apparition occurred, accompanied the boy. When they reached the tank, Our Lady appeared once again. On learning that it was Our Lady who appeared to the boy, the residents of the local Catholic community became ecstatic. The tank where the apparition took place is called “Matha Kulam” or “Our Lady’s tank”.
Second Apparition
Around the end of the 16th century, there lived at Vailankanni a poor widow with her son who was lame by birth. Every day the lame boy used to sit under a banyan tree at a place called ‘Nadu Thittu’ (central mound) and sell buttermilk to the thirsty wayfarers. On a certain day, to his bewilderment, a very bright light appeared in front of him and from amidst the light, a Lady of peerless grace with a divine Child in her arms, asked the boy for a cup of buttermilk. Then she directed him to go and inform a Catholic gentleman at Nagapattinam to put up a Chapel in her name on the spot of her apparition. The boy realized that his lame legs have become normal upon the word from the Lady. With great joy, he buoyantly ran to Nagapattinam to carry out the errand. Having been already directed in vision by Our Lady, the Catholic gentleman, with the support of the people, built a Chapel at ‘Nadu Thittu’ where now stands the present Shrine Basilica. The Lady was called, ‘Our Lady of Good Health’
Third Apparition
In the 17th century, a Portuguese merchant vessel, sailing from Macao in China to Colombo in Sri Lanka was caught in a tempest in the Bay of Bengal. The helpless sailors besought Mother Mary, the star of the sea to save them. They vowed to build a Church in her name, wherever they could land on. The stormy sea became calm. Their ship landed near the shore of Vailankanni on the 8th September, the feast of the nativity of Our Lady.
They transformed the thatched Chapel erected by the Catholic gentleman of Nagapattinam into a beautiful stone-built Chapel. And today that is where the Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health at Vailankanni stands.
Although the apparitions here in Vailankanni were not well documented as in the case of Lourdes, Fatima and Guadeloupe, Vailankanni Matha devotions have proved to have divine origin, simply because billions of people today have gone beyond the surface of history to the depths of the mystery. Pope John Paul II declared Vailankanni as “the Lourdes of the East” because like Lourdes in France, millions of pilgrims visit the Shrine throughout the year, praying to Our Lady for various needs and thanking her for the favors received through her intercession.