The Sacred Heart Shrine is a Catholic church in Idaikattur in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. 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 Indi ...

. It is noted for being a replica of

Reims Cathedral Notre-Dame de Reims (; ; meaning "Our Lady of Reims"), known in English as Reims Cathedral, is a Catholic cathedral in the French city of the same name, the seat of the Archdiocese of Reims. The cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and wa ...

in France.

History

In 1866, a thatched shed was constructed, which functioned as St. James church for Idaikattur parish. Fr. Ferdinandus Celle, SJ, the parish priest travelled to France in 1886 to gather funds for the construction of a church building. An Anglican woman named Mary Anne who was suffering from an acute heart ailment received a miraculous cure after praying a Catholic

novena A novena (from , "nine") is an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks. The nine days between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost, when the ...

to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mary Anne donated 2000

francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...

to Fr. Celle for the construction, with the request that the new church would be dedicated to the Sacred Heart Church and that it would be a replica of the Rheims Cathedral. Jesus church manamadurai

During the church construction, a portion of the church on the northern side was unintentionally built on a piece of land belonging to the temple. Fr. Celle offered to purchase the land, but the villagers refused. A commission was dispatched from

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

to Idaikattur to adjudicate the matter. On the night before leaving Madras, the head of the commission had a dream in which he saw angels building a church. On reaching Idaikattur, he was surprised to see that the church was the same one that he had seen in his dream. The head of the commission told the villagers about the dream. The villagers not only relinquished the piece of land, but even donated more land for the construction of the church.

Architecture

The church is in the

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

with a vaulted roof supported by columns with cantilever beams. These columns are connected to a circular terracotta ring which is shaped into rows of garlands, flowers, beads, etc. It was constructed by local masons who used a model of the Rheims Cathedral as a reference. In commemoration of the dream of the commission head, Fr. Celle placed statues and paintings of 153 angels in and around the church walls. The tomb of Fr. Ferdinandus Celle stands on the right side of the altar. Hollow bricks were used in the construction of the church, which helps keep the interior cool.

References

{{reflist Roman Catholic churches in Tamil Nadu