Our Lady’s Shrine Miraculously Preserved     

 The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Health, in the town of Vailankanni, is near the beach. Many pilgrims come to Vailankanni, particularly over Christmas, as it is a public holiday. The fact that the shrine is also in a resort area brings all manner of people from all over the country.       On the morning of December 26, 2004, many families had gathered at Vailankanni, and many had attended early Mass. After Mass, the families visit the beach. The Portuguese sailors saved by a vision of Our Lady during a vicious storm several hundred years ago, landed on the beach at Vailankanni.       But many who visited the beach that morning did not return. They watched as the water receded from the beach to form a giant wall which then came crashing down on them and swept them out to sea. They had no knowledge of such a phenomenon.       The wall of water came crashing through the town, but miraculously stopped at the second step of the Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health. The market square, 400 feet past the Shrine church, was destroyed.Buried Under Tons of Sand       It has been estimated that 1,000 people died at Vailankanni alone, including pilgrims. The district known as Nagapattinam lost an estimated 7,000. Because of the heat, those bodies that washed back to shore in the following days were photographed and buried in mass graves. The photos are available to those who search for missing loved ones. More than 900 bodies have been recovered in Vailankanni, and the digging continues for those buried under tons of sand.       Those who survived have been given shelter in many of the Shrine institutions and schools. Those pilgrims who survived have returned to their homes. Some without the family they came with.       As always, there are the positive stories of survivors. One lady found alive after being buried in debris for three days; a child found in a bush in the cemetery; a pilgrim lady, swept out to sea, landed alive on the shore 10 kilometers south of Vailankanni.Another Tsunami related news  :The Shrine Basilica containing the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle was untouched by the tsunami, yet the fishing village behind the Shrine was wiped out

 

Vailankanni is a little village in South India.

I visited this beautiful church which is at the sea coast as a teenager.  Heard that this church though built so close to the sea was not touched by the recent Tsunami. The waters rose to the steps of the Church and then receded , as if in respect of Our Lady. Here is the summary of the story of Our Lady of Vailankanni for those who do not know. 

Our lady of Good Health, popularly called "Our Lady of Vailankanni" is in the small town of Vailankanni (5000 residents) located on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. It is located 150 miles south of Madras in Tamil Nadu and 5 miles south of Nagapattinam. Our lady chose this place to dispense her miracles to mankind. A strong oral tradition attests to Our Lady’s apparitions at Vailankanni(Velankanni). The tradition is built around the following three significant events:
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.
Some years later Our Lady appeared again. This time to a crippled boy who was selling buttermilk near a public square on the outskirts of the same village of Vailankanni. She asked him for buttermilk for her infant Son and the boy compiled. Our Lady asked the boy to inform a certain wealthy Catholic man in the nearby town of Nagapattinam of her appearance. Not realizing that his crippled leg was miraculously cured by Our Lady, the boy rose up and began his journey. The man also had a vision the previous night in which Our Lady asked him to build a chapel for her. Together, the man and the boy returned to the site of the miracle.
This time Our Lady appeared to both. The man erected a thatched chapel for Our Lady at the site of Her second appearance. This chapel became a holy place of veneration to Our Blesses mother and She was called henceforth, Mother of Good Health ("Arokia Matha").
A few years later, Our Merciful Mother rescued a few Portuguese merchant sailors from a violent storm, which wrecked their ship. When the merchants reached the shore of Vailankanni they were taken by local fisherman to the thatched chapel. To give thanks and pay tribute to Our Lady, they built a small permanent chapel on their return trip. On subsequent visits they improved on it. The merchants dedicated the chapel to Our Lady on September 8th to celebrate the feast of her nativity and to mark the date of their safe landing to Vailankanni.

Today, the celebration of this feast is an annual festival which lasts for 9 days and draws more than a million and a half pilgrims. Vailankanni attracts more pilgrims than any other sacred shrine in India. Not only do multitudes of Catholic travel there throughout the year but many non-Christians visit as well. Hundreds of miraculous cures are reported every year.