Our Lady of Lourdes Basilica, also known as Poondi Madha Basilica, is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

pilgrimage centre located in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

. It is located in Alamelupuram-Poondi, a small village located adjacent to

Thirukattupalli Thirukattupalli (Ancient name: Melaithirukattupalli) is a panchayat town near Thiruvaiyaru in Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The economy of this town is majorly based on the agricultural lands of the surrounding villages ...

Thiruvaiyaru Thiruvaiyaru (also spelled as Tiruvaiyaru or Tiruvayyaru) is a panchayat town in Thanjavur District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Etymology Thiruvaiyaru means ''Five Rivers around the city''. The Five Rivers are Vadavaar, Vennaar, Vett ...

taluk of

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

district. The shrine was consecrated as a

Minor Basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

in 1999 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

History

In the beginning of the 18th century a great Italian Jesuit missionary Rev. Fr. Constantine Joseph Beschi S.J. popularly known as " Veeramamuniver" built a church and named it as the church of "Mary Queen of Immaculate Conception". It is in the dome of this church the statue of the miraculou
Lady of Poondi
is placed. This miraculous statue is one of the three statues that were made in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

after the apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes. Rev.Fr.Darres, MEP, brought these statues from France. Rev

According to the available records in the Basilica archives the French Missionary Fathers ( MEP Fathers ) were taking care of the Pastoral Mission in

Kumbakonam Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum) or Kudanthai is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the States of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the headq ...

Diocese in the beginning of 20th Century. Fr. Mette Louis Jules started a Catechetical School in Alamelupuram-Poondi around the year 1900 to train Catechists. Fr-lourdu-xavier-poondi-madha-basilica

Rev. Fr. Lourdes Xavier after being appointed as Parish Priest of Alamelupuram-Poondi on 1 September 1955, paid immediate attention to improve the condition of the Church, the central roof of which was in a bad condition and it was feared that it might collapse at any moment causing great damage. So he consulted an engineer. They wanted to demolish only the central roof without any damage to the front elevation, the doom and the altar. Fr.Lourdes Xavier was worried as it would cost too much and it would be beyond his means to find the necessary funds to reconstruct the Church. Fr.Lourdes Xavier, a great devotee of Our Lady, trusted and prayed to Our Lady of Poondi to reveal to him a way out to this problem. Inspired by an inner voice he predicted that the central roof of the church would come down on a particular day and time and it did. This is vividly remembered and described by people even today. Simon Cardinal Lourdusamy declared the Shrine of our Lady of Poondi as a permanent pilgrimage centre of our Lady of

Immaculate The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

Conception. On 03.08.1999, the shrine was declared as

Shrine

The present structure of the shrine has a mixture of

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

architectural styles. The facade above the portico has a row of statues of the Twelve Apostles, St. Francis Xavier and Fr. Constantine Joseph Beschi. The church has a

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

of the True Cross, believed to be the one on which Christ was crucified. Mother Mary Chapel

Gallery

File:Poondi Basilica 2.jpg, Poondi Basilica View File:Poondi Basilica 1.jpg, Poondi Basilica pleasant View File:Poondi Church Beauty.jpg, Holy Land Gallery in Poondi Poondi Madha temple 1.jpg Poondi Madha Temple.jpg Poondi Madha Church.jpg Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes (Poondi).jpg Poondi Madha Kovil.jpg

References

Indian Oil Petrol Bunk - Alamelupuram-Poondi Madha Kovil, Thanjavur Saraswthi Marriage Mahall in Alamelupuram Poondi village near Poondi basilica

External links

Official website
{{coord, 10.8611, N, 78.9383, E, source:wikidata, display=title Shrines to the Virgin Mary Catholic pilgrimage sites Roman Catholic churches in Tamil Nadu Our Lady of Graces Churches in Thanjavur district Roman Catholic shrines in India

History

Shrine

Gallery

See also

References

External links