Church of Our Lady of Matara

Feast concludes today:

by M. Felix V. Cooray

The Shrine of Our Lady of Matara is located on the Southern tip of Sri Lanka. The original Shrine was the Church of Our Lady of Mahature as Matara was once known. For the past one hundred years the Miraculous Statue of Our Lady of Matara has rested at St. Mary’s Church Matara. Today this church stands as a beacon light to visitors and pilgrims.

The statue is eighteen inches in height and is of the Madonna and Child. Mary is standing with the Child Jesus upon a pedestal featuring three ocean waves. Three times the Statue of Our Lady has been taken by the sea and each time she has returned to Matara. The last time was as a result of the three waves of the Tsunami. The statue was found three days later. It clearly indicates that our Mother wants to make her final abode at Matara.

“She came again, over the waves...
back to her people in Matara” Unchaperoned.

Miraculous statue

The statue belongs to the Portuguese type of sculpture of the early seventeenth century. It is a mystery as to who brought the statue 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 fishermen 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 fishermen 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 has viewed the statue as miraculous.

In the early 1990s, 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 with the sculptor placed the statue on the ship ‘Beachy’ to be sent to Matara. The ship had caught in a storm in the North Sea and nearly wrecked, most of the cargo was destroyed or thrown overboard. The ship made had 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 the Colombo, but not before yet another rough path at sea en 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 sculptor. When the sum was refused, he damaged the face of the statue and threw it away. The figure was recovered and returned once again to Zeus for repair.

The sculptor spends a great amount of energy and time restoring it to its original beauty.

On December 26, 2004 (Holy Family Sunday) the congregation was less than usual. During communion time around 9.10 am the church and the entire environment went under water. It was the cruel stubborn waters of Tsunami gushing in.

The celebrant Rev. Fr. Charles Hewawasam screamed at the people to run for safety. He ran to remove the Blessed Sacrament and the Miraculous statue. By this time, everything had gone.

However, they noticed that another stubborn and more disastrous wave which was far more destructive was fast approaching which would cause more damage to the church and the entire area.

Fr. Charles had to run for safety and took refuge in the new building. The brake between the first wave and the second was about 20 minutes.

In this connection, the valuable jewellery presented in 1918 to the Blessed Mother was missing. After the water receded Fr. Charles with a few parishioners happened to visit the main road and found a man carrying a bucket normally similar to the one used for church collections.

Here they found the entire set of jewellery. Our Heavenly Mother guided them to recover the lost jewellery.

Fr. Charles had to take refuge in a room in the new building. With a small congregation, they kept on praying for the statue to be found.

On December 29, 2004, quite unexpectedly Fr. Charles had a visitor who informed him that the statue has been washed ashore 400 meters away from the land. Fr. Charles Hewawasam embraced the statue in tears and praised God for finding this Heavenly gift.

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 survived. The gold chain too which was on infant Jesus on the statue of Our Lady’s body was recovered. After Tsunami restoration a permanent Religious Article Staff has been opened in the church premises for the convenience of the pilgrims. Every first Saturday devotions to the Heavenly Mother followed by Holy Mass is celebrated at 7.00 am.

After tsunami

A new chapel in a special way has come up with the Blessed Sacrament exposed daily from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm. This is a place where anyone could speak to Jesus bodily present and offer their secrets, troubles, worries and you have the peace of mind to change your life with new ideas etc.

One could really concentrate in prayer at this place dedicated to him.

The fourteen stations of the cross was a long need for parishioners and visitors. The administrator was able to bless the stations of the cross recently within the church premises.

In October 2011 a new chapel to Our Lady of Matara will be blessed within the premises itself in Milan. The initiative was taken by Professor Christina Caselli. It will be noteworthy and wish to place on record they were solely responsible for the restoration of our church and schools so beautifully and with great dedication. They have even visited our Church at Matara on numerous occasions and taken a great interest in all our restoration work. Our Mother of Matara will bless them for this great act and help them in all their endeavours in the future.