'She came over the waves'

Feast of Our Lady of Matara will be held from September 12-13

by M. Felix V. Cooray

The miraculous statue Our Lady of Matara is over 400 years old. People of all walks of life Catholic and non Catholic will flock in great numbers to obtain favours. Among them are the sick people with financial problems and those others seeking personal favours etc.

The statue 18" in height and cut out of piece of Ash wood and is of the Madonna and the child. Mother Mary is seen in standing position with the child Jesus upon a pedestal featuring the three oceans.

"She came over the waves... back to her people in Matara' unchaperoned.

The statue belongs to Portuguese type of sculpture of the early seventeenth century. It is a mystery as to who brought the statute to Sri Lanka, but we are aware that it was in Sri Lanka when the Portuguese occupied the area almost 400 years ago.

According to the story that has been passed down through generations, a huge wooden crate was pulled up by fisherman off the coast of Weligama, near Matara early in the seventeenth century. When the crate was opened, the statue was found inside untouched by the sea water. The fisherman handed over the statue to the Parish Priest and then placed in the original church of Matara. This was the first time that the Statue returned from the sea. Some time after, the statue had to be hidden due to the religious sanctions imposed by the Dutch, but again it returned to Matara.

Cholera epidemic

Later a cholera epidemic swept through the entire southern district and claimed hundreds of lives. The people of Matara rallied around the statue and prayed for an end to the epidemic. The statue was taken in a solemn procession through the streets of Matara. People of all religions participated. After a few days the area was declared safe by the health authorities. There were no fresh cases and no further deaths.

Since then the people have viewed the statue as miraculous. In the early 1900s, the First Bishop of Galle, Rt. Rev. Dr. Joseph Van Reith, a Belgian had the statue sent to Europe to be restored by a famous sculptor Zeus of Gehent. After restoration by the sculptor he placed the statue on the ship 'Beachy' to be sent to Matara. The ship was caught in a storm in the North Sea and nearly wrecked, most of the cargo was destroyed or thrown overboard. The ship made it to Middlesborough before continuing on to Colombo, but not before yet another rough patch at sea when part of the remaining cargo was also thrown overboard.

Finally the ship arrived in Colombo without the statue. The Bishop of Galle wrote to friends in Belgium to try to retrieve the priceless item. The statue was traced to a man in Middlesborough, who demanded money in exchange for the sculpture. When the sum was refused, he damaged the face of the statue and threw it away. The figure was recovered and was returned once again to Zeus for repair. The sculptor spent a great amount of energy and time restoring it to its original beauty.

The Bishop of Galle was visiting Belgium and undertook to return the state to Matara. He departed to Europe aboard the "Princess Alice" along with the sculpture. On reaching Colombo the Bishop went to take possession of the statue only to find it wasn't there. Three days later, the statue arrived aboard another vessel. For the second time Our Lady of Matara returned from the sea.

The Third Miracle-This is the story of the sea voyage on the 26th of December - Holy Family Sunday 2004 at 9.10 a.m. It was communion rite in the Eucharist.

On this fateful day the congregation was less than usual perhaps due to the Christmas holidays.At this moment the church and its environment and the whole area went under water suddenly. Rev. Fr. Charles Hewawasam, the administrator and celebrant of Holy Mass noticed the gushing waters and shouted at the people to run for safety. It was the stubborn waves of tsunami. At this moment even Fr. Charles had to run for safety. Then he realized (he had the presence of mind) that he should remove the Blessed Sacrament and the Miraculous Statue of Our Dear Mother. By this time, everything was taken by the stubborn cruel waters.

By this time he noticed that another stubborn and disastrous wave which was most destructive was fast approaching causing damage to the church, St. Servatiaus College and the entire area.

He promptly took refuge in the new building and he was able to see even vehicles being carried by cruel gushing waters. The brake between the first wave and the second wave was about 20 minutes.

In this connection, even the valuable jewellery presented in 1918 to the Blessed Mother was missing. However, the water receded. Fr. Charles with a few parishioners and relations went towards the Main Road.

There he noticed that a man was carrying a bucket and recognized that it was the bucket used for church collections.

They insisted the man to show them what he was carrying and to their utter surprise the jewellery was found. Our Heavenly Mother guided them to recover Her stolen jewellery.

After tsunami, morning, evening and night, Fr. Charles with the small congregation was praying in tears for the statue to come. Oh, come Dear Mother of Matara - when Fr. Charles was informed by Mr. Milton that the statue was washed ashore. Fr. Charles cried embracing the statue giving full praise to God.

Solemn surprise

Fr. Charles had to occupy a room in the new building and there in front the people were praying for the statue to come.On the 29th of December 2004, Fr. Charles had a visitor early morning around 6 am. It was one Milton Hekmanage - who was accompanied by one of the parishioners Ravi Rathnasingham.

They informed Father that the statue has been washed ashore 400 metres away from the land that Sisters of Charity of St. Mary's Convent were hoping to buy. The Infant Jesus carved on the Statue of Our Lady of Matara had not lost his crown during the sea voyage. It is so tiny, but had survived. They also recovered the gold chain which was on the Infant Jesus carved on the Statue of Our Lady's body.

Subsequently, after repairs were over, the Statue was installed at a special place right on top of the Main altar as you could see today. Rev. Fr. Charles Hewawasam was blessed to handle this great situation and due to his hard, tireless efforts and experience, the church was brought to its high standards of today.