 St. Anne’s Church, Talawila
No matter what religion you
follow, St. Anne’s Church in Talawila is one of the most ancient and
wonderful of all Christian shrines in Sri Lanka. Founded in the
epicentre of tradition and holiness, thousands of pilgrims flock during
the Christmas season, in March and August to this amazing place of
solitude and solace. Close to Kalpitiya, the St.Anne’s Church is easy to
access with the roads in good condition and offering some stunning views
of the Talawila Beach in peace.
 There are two accounts of its origins in which the first one is about
a European trader, travelling in a ship dedicated to St. Anne, was
shipwrecked off the coast of Talawila in the early half of the 18th
century. As the place where they landed wasn’t very hospitable, they
sought a place to rest their aching limbs and souls. They spied a large
banyan tree at a distance and they approached it with the statue of St.
Anne which they had in their possession. This image, they placed in the
tree with the captain of the ship vowing to return again and build a
church if his business prospered. The European trader obviously met with
success as he desired, and kept his word by building a church at the
place where the statue of St. Anne stood in its glory.
The other account is that in the 17th century, a poor Portuguese man
journeyed from Mannar to Colombo in order to seek a livelihood. However,
he failed to do so and was returning by the coast, when he happened to
fall asleep under a large tree at Talawila at the site of the present
church. He dreamed that he saw an image at the foot of the tree, with
lighted tapers burning on each side. Waking up from his sleep, he saw
with astonishment that the image was actually there.
In this confusion, he prayed loud and at that moment was suddenly
dazed and awestruck by the ‘great awakening light’, which illumined the
form of St. Anne herself. The mother of the Holy Virgin in her glorious
presence stood before him and told that the image he had seen was
intended as a representation of herself and that he should build a
church there, christen it after her, and preserve in it the relic that
had so graciously been revealed to him. Impressed and moved with this
experience, the poor man set out to build a small Chapel.
 St. Anne appeared to him again and left him some gold coins which
enabled him shortly to return to his country where he raised funds for
the construction of a permanent church at Talawila. He then had a third
vision of this beautiful saint, upon whose instructions he built a
larger one in its place.
“The image” now exhibited in the church is said to be the identical
statue discovered by the Portuguese man in the manner narrated here. In
1943, by some strange coincidence, exactly a hundred years after the
erection of the present church, there appeared the hull of a wrecked
vessel for which the present generation has no recollection whatever.
The crowds of people who flocked to view it, in the pious belief that it
was the vessel which had once borne the image of St. Anne, testify to
the persistence off the tradition.
Text and Pix: ND
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