News

Lankan shrine stands tall despite Dutch persecution and civil war

Published

2 years ago

2024/04/28

Thilina Walpola

Devotees at the ancient shrine (UCAN Photo)

Lankan Catholics celebrate the centenary of Pope Benedict XV recognizing their Marian devotion

By Rubatheesan Sandran

(UCAN) When P. Lilly Mary joined the golden jubilee procession of the statue of Our Lady of Madhu in 1974, Sri Lanka’s northern areas had not yet descended into a bloody ethnic civil war.

Fifty years later, Mary returned to her St. Mary’s Parish Church, some seven kilometers from Jaffna, to witness the centenary procession of the blessed statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.

The iconic statue was coming to the Jaffna area for the first time since government forces suppressed a three-decade-long civil war (1983-2009) led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, seeking a separate homeland for Tamil-speaking people.

The procession and festivities mark the centenary of the coronation of the statue of Our Lady of Madhu in 1924 after Pope Benedict XV issued a decree of pontifical coronation on April 7, 1921.

The decree is a formal papal act that recognizes the popular piety of honoring an image and gives the image the right to wear a crown or halo. In effect, the act recognized the unique local piety of Sri Lankan people, honoring the Marian statue.

As part of the celebrations, the statue is taken on procession throughout the Jaffna diocese, including northern areas, from April 4 to 30. The statue, carried in a motor vehicle fashioned as a chariot, is scheduled to visit all deaneries in Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Point Pedro, and the northern islands.

Mary said the statue coming to her parish was “a great opportunity for folks like us who are unable to go on annual pilgrimages as we used to due to our age now.”

The procession’s paths are decorated with Marian blue and white ribbons. Parishioners also place kumpams (coconuts placed on pots), which follow the Tamil custom of welcoming the statue to their respective parishes.

Jaffna was intermittently under government and rebel control. Many churches in the nation’s northern tip were destroyed or abandoned. With many of its priests and religious killed or disappeared during the war, the diocese is still reeling under a shortage of manpower to help people rebuild lives.

However, at the height of the conflict, the 400-year-old shrine in Jaffna diocese became a symbol of unity between the warring Tamil and Sinhalese groups. Situated in the heart of the conflict zone, the shrine was shelled several times and had to house refugee camps.

The shrine was set up during the Dutch persecution in the 17th century. Nearly 20 Catholics who escaped the persecution erected the shrine with the statue in a jungle. Later, Oratorian missionary St. Joseph Vaz from India, and other Oratorian priests expanded it further.

During the civil war, the diocese relocated the statue to the nearby St. Xavier parish for safety. In August 2008, the statue was brought back and the shrine was declared a peace zone at the request of former Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Jaffna.

“Our Lady of Madhu has been a ray of hope throughout history, from Dutch persecution in the 17th century to recent wartime years. She blesses all irrespective of their religion or ethnicity,” said Father Anthonypillai Gnanapragasam, the shrine’s administrator.

In 2001, the statue’s procession was extended to southern Anuradhapura, Galle, and Colombo dioceses as the civil war temporarily halted following a ceasefire agreement.

Ahead of the centenary procession to Mary’s parish in Koay village, “many Hindus joined locals to assist, and many came to witness,” said Father Louis Montfort, its parish priest.

Montfort said Our Lady of Madhu has many Hindu devotees, who prefer to call her Puthumai Maatha, named after a Tamil saying.

Amalathaas Rosequil, 64, was one of the Hindus who joined the procession. She said she became a Marian devotee after she overcame a health issue.

At 26, she said, she met with an accident and doctors feared she could lose her eyesight. “I prayed to Puthumai Maatha. Eventually, my eye was healed,” Rosequil told UCA News.

“Not only myself, Puthumai Maatha blessed many of my relatives as well,” she said.The shrine’s annual festival is held on Aug. 15, when the historic church in the war-torn area attracts thousands of visitors.

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News

Ranawaka accuses govt. of using JVP cadres and police to suppress political opponents

Published

7 hours ago

2026/10/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

… reminds AKD led over 560 protests during Yahapalanaya

Former Yahapalana Minister and United Republican Front (URF) leader Patali Champika Ranawaka yesterday (19) alleged that the JVP, which carried out over 560 protests during the 2015-2019 period, was now bent on preventing the Opposition from exercising its democratic right to protest.

Recalling the declaration made by the JVP at the height of the violent protest campaign in July 2022 that it would set the Parliament ablaze, the former parliamentarian lashed out at the JVP-led administration for using the police excessively to curb political opposition. Ranawaka said this while addressing the media at the former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Flower Road Office .

Commenting on the protest campaign launched by the Maha Sangha, demanding presidential pardon for General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Ven. Galagotaatte Gnanasara, the ex-Colombo District lawmaker alleged that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake used a combination of police, investigative units and JVP cadres to break up the monks’ protest. The government went to the extent of compelling the JVP/NPP-run Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) to deprive the peaceful protesters of basic toilet facilities, he alleged.

The government’s actions proved that only those with prior approval from JVP Pelawatte headquarters could launch protests in Colombo, its suburbs or in the provinces. The police have become a political tool in the hands of the JVP, the ex-Minister said. (SF)

News

Six killed as speeding bulker crashes into vehicles, shop in Akurana

Published

7 hours ago

2026/10/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

By SK Samaranayake

Six people were killed and seven others injured when a speeding bulker lorry carrying cement and concrete ploughed into several vehicles and a shop on the Kandy-Jaffna A9 road at Kurugoda, Akurana, yesterday (19).

Four of the victims, two women and two men, died on the spot in the accident which occurred around 10.30 am, according to Alawathugoda Police.

Police said the bulker, travelling at high speed from the Matale direction, collided with three three-wheelers, two motorcycles and two lorries before veering off the road and crashing into a commercial establishment.

Five of the injured were rushed to the National Hospital of Kandy, where hospital sources said two remained in critical condition.

The bodies of the four victims were placed at the Akurana Hospital, where two others, who suffered minor injuries, were also receiving treatment.

The driver of the bulker was arrested by the Alawathugoda Police Traffic Division and is to be produced before court.

Investigations are being conducted under the supervision of Central Province Senior DIG Lalith Pathinayake.

News

Prof. Peiris, summoned by CIABOC, appeals for Ven. Gnanasara’s release

Published

7 hours ago

2026/10/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

G.L. Peiris

By Shamindra Ferdinando

owledging that there had been an administrative lapse on the part of the President’s Office in 2019 when Maithripala Sirisena granted presidential pardon to Ven. Gnanasara Thera, Convener of Janathawadi Joint Opposition Prof. G.L. Peiris yesterday (19) urged President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to rectify whatever those shortcomings and release the General Secretary of Bodu Bala Sena.

Addressing the media at the former President Ranil Wickrekmesinghe’s Flower Road Office, Prof. Peiris emphasized that it was not fair to hold Ven. Gnanasara accountable for lapse or technical fault of others at the Presidential Secretariat during President Sirisena’s tenure.

Prof. Peiris was flanked by UNP Chairman Wajira Abeywardena and United Republican Front (URF) leader Patali Champika Ranawaka.

The fresh appeal was made on behalf of Ven. Gnanasara in the wake of President Dissanayake and JVP heavyweight Anura Kumara Dissanayake ruling out fresh presidential pardon for the monk. Minister Lal Kantha declared that the government couldn’t under any circumstances meet the continuing monks’ protest demanding Ven. Gnanasara’s release. President Dissanayake dismissed repeated appeals for Ven. Gnanasara’s release when he addressed the NPP really in Badulla.

Sirisena granted presidential pardon in May 2019 even before he completed a year of his six-year term of rigorous imprisonment for contempt of court during proceedings of the media personality Prageeth Ekneligoda’s 2010 January disappearance in the Homagama Magistrate’s court.

At the onset of the regular weekly briefing, Prof. Peiris said that he would report to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) today (20) morning as requested by the commission. “The CIABOC wanted to record my statement regarding a meeting I chaired at the ministry after the conclusion of the war in 2009 pertaining to an ongoing investigation.”

Commenting further on the imprisonment of Ven. Gnanasara, the former parliamentarian said that President Sirisena intervened following a spate of requests made on behalf of BBS General Secretary by the Mahanayakes, Anunayakes and other Maha Sangha.

The Supreme Court on 10 September, 2026 rescinded the presidential pardon granted in late May 2019.