Our Lady of Snows, Tuticorin ~ Thoothukudi Silver Jubilee Celebrations

ST. FRANCIS IN TUTICORIN
Tuticorin is one of the oldest seaports in the world and was the scene of some of St. Francis Xavier‘s most felicitous work. When he arrived in 1542 it was under the control of the Hindu prince Vettum Perumal, but the machinations of the Portuguese colonial profiteers were also very much evident (they almost drove St. Francis to despair). There was already a large Catholic population in the town as eight years before 30,000 Palavers (the caste of Pearl Fishers who lived along the southeast coast down to the tip of India) had converted from Hinduism to Christianity.

St. Francis stayed for two years to catechize these recent converts. He took many pains to learn the Credo, Pater, Ave, Gloria, Salve and Confiteor in Tamil (a herculean Endeavour).... ....and, taking a bell, I went ringing it right through the town to collect as many children and adults as I could. Having gathered my audience, I held forth to them, twice each day until, at the end of the month, they had learned the prayers. I then arranged for the children to teach their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and neighbors, the lessons which they had acquired in my school. St. Francis repeated this exercise in the villages north and south of Tuticorin. During my stay I was besieged by crowds of people who wanted me to come to their huts and pray for their sick.; So numerous were their requests...but I had not the heart to deny any of their requests ....I told the children who had memorized the Christian Doctrine to betake themselves to the homes of the sick, there to collect as many of the family and neighbors as possible, and to say the Creed with them several times ...[and] owing to their faith, God has shown great mercy to their sick, healing them in both body and soul.

The high altar of the Basilica of Our Lady of Snows on her feast day (5th August).
The Basilca was built in 1713

A holy throng of faithful come to pray to Our Lady of the Snows on her feast.

THE STATUE

The beautiful wooden statue of Our Lady of Snows in the Basilica was originally kept in a chapel in a Convent of the Augustinian Sisters in Manila, Philippines. St. Francis Xavier had to spend a few days
in Manila on his way to China (1552) and was very much attracted by the beauty of
the statue. In his heart of hearts, he desired it for the newly converted Paravars of Pearl
Fishery Coast as his gift, for he had noticed their great attachment towards Hindu goddesses such as Madurai Meenakshi and Kanyakumari Bhagavathi Amman and thought this beautiful statue of Our Lady of Snows would be the best means of leading them away from these false gods. But when he expressed his wish to the sisters, they turned down his request— they loved the statue too. Later, however,
when they came to know of the death of St. Francis Xavier on Sancian Island in the
same year, they remembered his request and immediately sent the statue to Thoothukudi by a ship named SANTALENA (St. Helena). The ship arrived on 9th June 1555.

OUR MASS CENTRE

The Mass Centre of Tuticorin was the first Mass Centre to be established in India (1986). It still resides on the property of Miss Josephine Caleb. The chapel is now too small for the congregation and there
have been a number of ingenious attempts to acquire a new site on which to construct
a chapel, but all without success. The greatest obstacles are the usual ones:
shortage of priests and money. Two novices of the Consoling Sisters, Srs. Maria
Celina and Maria Theresa, were members of this Mass Centre.
Our Lady of Snows, Tuticorin