Questions & Answers about the Shrine

Question 1

Where is the Holy Family Shrine, Vadakkankulam?

Accepted Answer

The shrine stands on East Street in Vadakkankulam, an inland village in Radhapuram taluk, Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu (PIN 627116), in the Diocese of Thoothukudi. It is roughly 26 km from Nagercoil and 66 km from Tirunelveli, just off the NH-44 highway. The parish office may be reached on 04637 230134.

Question 2

What do the names Vadavai Matha and Paraloga Matha mean?

Accepted Answer

“Vadavai Matha” is the affectionate local name for this shrine and its Mother — from Vadakkankulam and the Tamil Matha, “Mother”. Her formal title is Our Lady of the Assumption, venerated here as “Paraloga Matha” and “Vinnerpu Matha”, both meaning Our Lady of Heaven. All of these name the one patroness of the Holy Family Shrine, Vadakkankulam.

Question 3

Why is Vadakkankulam called “Little Rome”?

Accepted Answer

The name “Little Rome” — Chinna Romapuri — was given to the village in 1926 by Most Rev. Dr Francis Tiburtius Roche, S.J., the first Bishop of Tuticorin, in recognition of the scale of the church and the depth of the village's Catholic life. It is an affectionate title bestowed within the Church, not a civil or official designation.

Question 4

When is the annual feast?

Accepted Answer

The patronal feast of Our Lady of the Assumption runs for ten days, from 6 to 15 August. It opens with the hoisting of the flag (kodiyetram) on 6 August and closes on 15 August with the chariot procession in the early hours of the morning, which draws crowds of around one hundred thousand. During the feast the roads nearest the church are closed to vehicles and there is no parking close by.

Question 5

Is there a second annual observance?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The parish also keeps the commemoration of the apparition — the Matha Kaatchi — each year on 22–23 October, remembering the weeping of Our Lady before the village on 23 October 1803.

Question 6

What are the Mass timings?

Accepted Answer

Monday to Saturday, Mass is at 05:00, 06:10. On Sunday, Mass is at 05:00, 07:00, 09:30. The Eucharistic adoration chapel is open daily from 09:00 to 20:00. Timings can change on feast days, so pilgrims travelling a distance are advised to telephone the parish office on 04637 230134 first.

Question 7

Who was St Devasahayam Pillai, and what is his connection to this church?

Accepted Answer

Born Neelakanta Pillai in 1712, he was an officer of the Travancore court who was baptised at this church on 14 May 1745 by the Jesuit Fr John Baptist Buttari, S.J., taking the name Devasahayam. He was martyred on 14 January 1752, and canonised by Pope Francis on 15 May 2022 — the first Indian layman ever to be declared a saint. This is the church of his baptism. It is also the best-attested fact in the parish's history: the Holy See's own sources, Vatican News and L'Osservatore Romano, name Vadakkankulam as the place he was baptised.

Question 8

Was the parish really founded by St John de Britto?

Accepted Answer

Yes. St John de Britto — known in Tamil as Arulanandar — raised a thatched chapel here in 1685 and dedicated it to the Holy Family, baptising some two hundred people. He was Superior of the Madurai Mission in exactly those years, and the colonial district gazetteer independently places Christianity at Vadakkankulam in “the closing years of the seventeenth century”. He was martyred at Oriyur in 1693 and canonised in 1947.

Question 9

What makes the Holy Family Shrine at Vadakkankulam historically significant?

Accepted Answer

Several documented facts set it apart. It was founded in 1685 by St John de Britto — a Jesuit missionary later canonised as a martyr — and is one of the historic inland churches of the old Jesuit Madurai Mission. It is the parish where St Devasahayam Pillai, the first Indian layman ever to be declared a saint (canonised 2022), was baptised in 1745 — a fact recorded by the Holy See itself. Its great two-nave church, whose naves converge on a single altar, is believed to be unique in India. And the village has been honoured as “Little Rome” (Chinna Romapuri) since 1926. For a village parish its history is unusually well documented — in the Jesuit archives at Rome, the colonial district gazetteers, the nineteenth-century mission histories, and the Vatican's own records.

Question 10

Is the Holy Family Shrine one of the oldest churches in Tamil Nadu?

Accepted Answer

It is one of the historic churches of the region, but not the oldest in Tamil Nadu — the oldest are on the coast, from the sixteenth-century Portuguese and Jesuit missions. Founded in 1685, the Holy Family Shrine is among the older churches of the Tirunelveli interior and one of the significant inland parishes of the old Madurai Mission. Its distinction rests less on age than on three things: its unique two-nave church, its title of “Little Rome”, and its being the parish where St Devasahayam Pillai was baptised in 1745.

Question 11

When was the present church built, and who built it?

Accepted Answer

The foundation stone was laid on 9 August 1855 by Bishop Alexis Canoz, S.J., and the church was blessed in June 1872 after some 17 years of work. It was carried through by Fr Joseph Grégoire, S.J., whom the Jesuit histories call “the apostle of Vadakenkoulam”, with Br Joseph Bergenthal, S.J. as the building brother and chief architect. Br Bergenthal's part is recorded in the parish's own English history and confirmed by the Jesuit archives in Rome, which list him in 1872 as the builder of the church at Vadakencoulam.

Question 12

What is unusual about the church's architecture?

Accepted Answer

The church is built with two naves that converge eastward to meet at a single shared sanctuary and one east-facing altar — a plan the Jesuit historian Auguste Jean described in 1894 as being “in the form of an open compass”, and a church “probably without equal in the world”. The façade is flanked by two octagonal towers 92 feet high, with sixteen smaller pinnacle-towers around the church.

Question 13

Is it true the arches were built without iron?

Accepted Answer

So the parish's own history records: 24 arches within the church, twelve of them meeting over the altar, turned with lime and palm-toddy mortar, built without iron — with no iron and no cement, and no wooden pillar or beam holding them up. The vaults and pillars are painted with flowers and scenes in natural plant dyes rather than chemical paint.

Question 14

What are the two bells?

Accepted Answer

The church's twin bells were cast in 1861 in France, given by the French benefactor Casimir Grégoire, and installed in 1872 when the new church was blessed — one bell in each of the two towers. The bell photographed in its tower is cast “Vve Grégoire de Valence (Drôme) — Donateur Casimir Grégoire”: the bronze names its own foundry — the Veuve Grégoire works at Valence (Drôme) — and confirms the donor by name. Published accounts had said the Burdin foundry of Lyon; where the record and the bronze differ, the bronze has the last word.

Question 15

What is the statue of Our Lady of the Assumption, and where did it come from?

Accepted Answer

The venerated image is a crowned statue of Our Lady of the Assumption. By parish tradition, in 1742–43 a wooden box marked “To Vadakankulam, From Portugal” was carried ashore by the sea at Kootapuli, found by fishermen and brought to Fr Buttari, who kept one of the images it held for this church. We should be honest that this is a treasured parish tradition rather than a documented fact: it does not appear in the older Jesuit or academic histories of the mission.

Question 16

What happened here in 1803?

Accepted Answer

The parish has commemorated the weeping of Our Lady on 23 October 1803 ever since. It is a local and diocesan tradition, recorded by the Jesuit historian Léon Besse, and has never been the subject of a Vatican investigation. The parish's account is that on the morning of Friday 23 October 1803, as a villager knelt in prayer, the statue's face darkened, tears ran down it, and her folded hands opened outward; the bell was rung, the village gathered, and the parish priest of that year examined the statue and declared the event genuine. The centenary was kept in 1903, and the commemoration is held every year on 22–23 October.

Question 17

Is this the same shrine as Velankanni?

Accepted Answer

No — they are two different places, and they are often confused. Velankanni is the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health, in Velankanni in Nagapattinam district, several hundred kilometres away. Vadakkankulam is an inland village in Tirunelveli district; its church is dedicated to the Holy Family and its patroness is Our Lady of the Assumption. The two have different titles, different histories and different feast days.

Question 18

Is there an entry fee, and who may visit?

Accepted Answer

There is no entry fee. This is a living parish church and a diocesan shrine, not a ticketed monument. Pilgrims and visitors of every background are welcome at Mass and at the adoration chapel. The parish today numbers around 10,500 Catholics in roughly 4,000 families.

Question 19

Is the Holy Family Shrine worth visiting for travellers and pilgrims?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It is both a living pilgrimage shrine and a place of real historical and architectural interest — its unique two-nave church, its twin 92-foot towers, and its four centuries of history. It stands in the far south of Tamil Nadu, about 27 km from Kanyakumari and 26 km from Nagercoil, so it is easily added to a journey through the Kanyakumari–Nagercoil region. Entry is free, and visitors of every background are welcome.

Question 20

How do I reach Vadakkankulam?

Accepted Answer

By road, the village lies just off the NH-44, about 26 km from Nagercoil (roughly 30 minutes) and 66 km from Tirunelveli. Kanyakumari is about 27 km away. The nearest railway stations are North Panakudi (15 km) and Valliyur (20 km); the nearest airports are Thiruvananthapuram and Thoothukudi, each about 95–97 km away.