Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine, Gothic Revival Catholic shrine in Villianur, India.
Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine is a church building with Gothic architectural elements located in Villianur, Puducherry. The complex features a central chapel structure, and a pond sits near the entrance to the grounds.
MEP missionaries bought land at Villianur in 1867 and began a chapel at Kanuvapet after negotiations with the authorities of the Thirukameswarer Gogilambigai Temple; construction took about ten years. Father Tarbes, a cousin of Bernadette Soubirous, became parish priest, and the chapel was the first outside Lourdes named for Our Lady of Lourdes. A statue arrived from Lourdes on 4 April 1877. Pope Leo XIII's decree of 21 February 1886 declared the site a shrine, and Archbishop Laouënan crowned the statue on 8 May 1886 before some 40,000 people.
The shrine is the setting for a major feast with nine days of novena prayers, ending with a ceremonial procession where a decorated cart moves through Villianur's streets. Worshippers gather here to pray together and participate in this long-standing tradition.
The shrine lies in Villianur, about 11 km from Puducherry and 30 km from Villupuram on the Villupuram road. The annual feast begins with novena prayers and flag hoisting on the sixth day after Easter, with the feast day on the fifteenth day after Easter. A foot pilgrimage from Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Pondicherry, roughly 12 km, sets off on the second Saturday of October.
The shrine holds a statue of Our Lady that was brought directly from France in 1877 and has remained central to worship here. This statue connects the place to the European pilgrimage site and holds deep religious meaning for visitors.
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