The crowned statue of Our Lady on her flower-decked chariot at the August feast, the spires of the shrine rising behind her

The Plates

What the Shrine Looks Like

Every photograph this site holds of the church, the statue, the feast, the other churches of the village and the graves behind — in one place, at a size worth looking at.

38 photographs, in six parts. Tap any one of them to see it whole.

This is not everything. The parish has more, and so does the village; corrections and better prints are welcome.

The Church

Twin octagonal towers, ninety-two feet of them, and the silhouette that in 1926 earned a Tamil village the name Little Rome.

The white Gothic façade of the Holy Family Church, Vadakkankulam, with its twin octagonal towers and pinnacled roofline against a clear sky — The west front

The west façade of Holy Family Church, Vadakkankulam, seen square-on in daylight — five doors, a Tamil inscription across the gable, and the twin spires above — The church as it stands today

The twin octagonal towers and the ring of pinnacles along the roofline, with the sun going down directly behind the spires — The twin towers and the pinnacled roofline

The spires of the shrine against a clouded evening sky, the hills of the Western Ghats low on the horizon behind — Evening over the shrine

The whole west front of the shrine at dusk, dressed with a feast banner across the lower gable — The front, dressed for the feast

The Holy Family sculpture group set in the banded pointed arch above the main entrance of the church, a dove in a golden halo above them — The Holy Family, over the entrance

The Two Trinities relief over the central door — the Holy Family in polychrome, a dove in a golden halo above them, and above that an eye set in a triangle — The Two Trinities relief over the central door

A heritage doorway of the parish under a colonnaded porch, its blue double doors flanked by coloured glass and the year 1839 painted on the arch above — A doorway of the parish, dated on its arch

Inside

Two naves running in to one altar, twenty-four arches turned in lime with no iron in them, and glass a hundred years late.

The interior of the church looking back down the nave to the west door, the painted rib vault overhead and a figure standing in the light of the open doorway — Down the nave, to the west door

The high altar of the shrine, its carved screen rising in gilded tiers to a dome, the crucified Christ at the centre with Our Lady and St Joseph beside him, and the sanctuary banked with flowers — The high altar, gilded and unfaded

The high altar: a five-bay carved screen rising to gilded spires under the painted vault, the crucifix on its centre axis, and twelve small statues in a gold arcade either side of the tabernacle — The carved screen above the tabernacle

The painted rib vault over the nave, its bands of green, blue and rose meeting at a chandelier, with a coloured-glass window in the wall beneath — The nave vault, its arches turned without iron, beam or centring

A tall four-light tracery window in a stencilled wall, its lancets filled with red, blue, green and yellow diamond panes — A four-light tracery window, its glass filled at the 1972 centenary

A rose window of coloured glass set high in the painted vault, its petals radiating from a clear centre — The rose window set in the painted vault

The heads of three lancet windows, diamond panes below and trefoil rosettes of coloured glass above them — Diamond panes and trefoil rosettes in the lancet heads

Coloured glass glowing in a pointed window, the wall around it stencilled in patterns made with plant dye — Coloured glass in a wall stencilled in plant dye

Coloured glass diamonds glowing in the plaster tracery of a nave window, seen from inside against the light — Light through the tracery

A bronze bell hanging in its frame high in the tower, cast with the words “Vve Grégoire de Valence (Drôme)” and “Donateur Casimir Grégoire” — The bell in its tower, cast “Vve Grégoire de Valence (Drôme)” and “Donateur Casimir Grégoire”

A carved angel in a rose-coloured robe kneels with hands joined in prayer beside the pulpit of the shrine, the flower-dressed high altar and its saints out of focus behind — An angel at the pulpit

Our Lady, and the Feast

The statue this village has kept since before the church was built, and the ten days in August it is carried out to.

The crowned statue of Our Lady of the Assumption at Vadakkankulam, robed in teal and gold, hung with gold chains and standing under an arch of flowers — Vadavai Matha, dressed for her feast

The crowned statue of Vadavai Matha at night, covered from throat to waist in the gold chains and ornaments left as offerings — The gold left at her feet, worn

The crowned statue of Our Lady on her flower-decked processional chariot at the August feast, attendant figures either side and the church spires rising behind — The chariot, on the fifteenth of August

The monstrance carried under an embroidered canopy hung with lights and marigold garlands in the procession of the annual feast — The Blessed Sacrament, carried out

The Village of Churches

Little Rome is not one building. Eight more feasts are kept in the year, and each is kept at a church of its own.

The church of St Sebastian at Vadakkankulam — a small teal-and-white chapel with a painted panel above its porch — St Sebastian — kept 11 to 20 January

The chapel of Kannikai Matha — Our Lady of the Presentation — an open-sided shelter with a pitched roof standing in an open field — Kannikai Matha — kept 31 January to 2 February

The shrine of St John de Britto — Arulanandar — a carved wooden housing on a plinth against a blue wall, holding a painting of the martyr — St John de Britto — kept 3 and 4 February

The Lourdes grotto of the parish — a pale blue rock grotto built up in front of a long ochre building, with steps climbing to the niche — Our Lady of Lourdes — kept 5 to 11 February

St Anthony's church at Vadakkankulam — a pink-and-white front with two slender towers, a floodlight mast standing beside it — St Anthony — kept 1 to 13 June

The church of St George at Vadakkankulam — a small white chapel behind an iron railing, a painted image of the saint set above its door — St George — kept 18 to 27 June

The Velankanni church of the parish — a white front stepped up to three crosses, with a broad flight of steps at the door — Our Lady of Velankanni — kept 30 August to 8 September

The church of St Michael the Archangel at Michaelpalayam, a Tamil banner strung across its white front — St Michael, at Michaelpalayam — kept 20 to 29 September

The Saints and the Graves

The founder, the layman baptised here in 1745, his wife, and the six priests buried behind the church.

A devotional painting of St Devasahayam Pillai kneeling in prayer on a rock above a river, a hill fort behind him and light breaking through the clouds — St Devasahayam Pillai, baptised at this church in 1745

A devotional painting of St Devasahayam Pillai bound in chains, his hands crossed on his chest and his eyes raised — In chains, on the road to Aralvaimozhi

A printed likeness of St John de Britto in a white robe, holding a crucifix, with a martyr's palm behind his shoulder — St John de Britto — Arulanandar — who came in 1685

The tomb of Gnanapoo Ammal, wife of St Devasahayam Pillai, sheltered under a white arched memorial with an old stone cross standing in it — The grave of Gnanapoo Ammal, who died in 1766

Three white gabled tomb monuments in a row against a wall behind the church, each with a black inscribed plaque set into its face — They are buried here — the priests' graves behind the church

From the Archive

The two photographs of this church that are older than anyone now living — one of them printed in Paris in 1901.

The west façade of Holy Family Church, Vadakkankulam, photographed by Fr Pierre Suau SJ in 1899–1900 — twin spires, the pinnacle cresting, a free-standing flagstaff and a group of parishioners at a doorway that as yet has no porch — The oldest known photograph of this church

An archival black-and-white photograph of the great two-nave church at Vadakkankulam, its spires and pinnacles against a clouded sky — The parish's own archival photograph. Nothing we hold dates it.

If you have a photograph of this church that we do not, please write to the parish. Everything given is credited.