Feast celebrated in Marawila today:

The golden legend of the Purification of Our Lady

by Commodore Shemal Fernando, RSP, USP, MSc

In the liturgical calender, the feast of Our Lady of Purification is celebrated on February 2, 40 years after the feast of Nativity of Our Lord on December 25. Today, this feast is celebrated at Our Lady of Purification Church in Marawila in the Diocese of Chilaw, Besides, Purification (of Our Lady), the feast is also identified in the titles of Presentation (of Our Lord), Success (of Our Lady) and 'the Meeting' (of Simeon with the Infant Jesus).

This year the feast is celebrated for the 136th consecutive year in Marawila. The energetic Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Felix Colombage, has made elaborate arrangements for befitting conduct of the annual feast. He is ably assisted by the Assistant Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Tharanga Hemal.

Purification of Our Lady

According to the Old Testament, a mother would take her son 40 days after his birth to the Temple to present herself to be purified and to offer the child to God. This was a precept that every good Israelite mother observed. It was, moreover, a beautiful law that reflected the holiness of God.

A child is born amid the dangers that accompany every gestation. But, finally, he is born. As soon as the mother recovers enough to travel, she takes the child and goes to the Temple. She goes and presents her child to God because He was the one who created him so he might be offered to God and live for Him. The Old Law made this presentation obligatory.

Our Blessed Lady, the purest of virgins, in her great humility, came like every other mother for this ceremony of her 'purification', desirous as she was to honour God by every prescribed observance and act of religion. And being poor, she and St. Joseph brought the offering appointed for the poor.

Presentation of Our Lord

The second great mystery honoured on this day is the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple. A first born son had to be offered to God and then ransomed back. So, Our Blessed Lady would have offered her Son to the Father, and then St. Joseph would have paid the priest five shekels. Then she would have received Him back in her arms and they would have been free to go home.

Because she did not have original sin, Our Lady was above the Old Law. Likewise, Our Lord who is God, was not subject to the Law that He Himself made. The legislator is superior to the law. So, in principle, He was not obliged to go, and Our Lady was not obliged to take Him to the temple in Jerusalem.

But she wanted to do so. She wanted to do out of respect for the law, for tradition. Loving tradition and animated by her intense love for God, she took her Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, to the temple of Jerusalem.

Meeting of Simeon with Infant Jesus

Then we have the story in the Gospels on that episode at the temple. It is God Incarnate Who enters the temple built to worship Him. Even if the temple had been much more splendid than the temple of Jerusalem, it still would not have been sufficient for the Incarnate God to enter. It was the greatest hour, the blessed hour, the perfect hour. One can say that at that moment, the angels filled the temple and began to sing to celebrate the solemn moment.

Our Lady entered holding Our Lord. Yet almost no one realised the magnitude of the event. At the time Our Lord was born, the temple was filled with booths of people doing business of all kinds. Almost everything was in ruins, a moral decadence. Then the One Who is the author of all things entered into this spiritual ruins. He came to fulfil the ritual of presentation, and a prophet, Simeon, who was the Prophet chosen by God for this act of receiving the Son of God in the Temple, came forward.

Receiving the Divine Child in his arms, he spoke the words of that canticle: "Now thou dost dismiss thy servant in peace, O Lord, according to thy word. Because my eyes have seen my salvation, which thou hast prepared in the face of all peoples, A Light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel". Our Lady, joyous, heard these words spoken by Prophet Simeon, who seemed embittered by life, by a promise that still had not been fulfilled. Then, when he saw the Messiah arrive, he cried out "Now, Lord, I can die in peace because my eyes have seen the Saviour".

He blessed them, and told the mother the future of that Child. He foresaw the Glory and the Cross. He said: "Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted". The Prophetess Anna also sang the glories of the Child. By divine inspiration, Simeon and Anna were given to know that which until then only St. Joseph and Mary and a few others knew, that He was the Son of God.

Our Lady of Good Success

The relation of this event to Our Lady of Good Success is an event worthy of note, something that demands care, sacrifice, and dedication, and which gives a result. When this result is good, one says that it is a good success. There was much good success in the birth of Our Lord: the gestation of Our Lady was perfect; it was followed by a blessed and happy delivery, and the Child was healthy and perfect. Therefore, to commemorate such good success and to fulfil the precept of purification Our Lady took Him to the Temple.

In the broadest sense of the word, good success applies also to all those who carry out an arduous work, who take on a great responsibility, who desire to do difficult things to reach the result they were striving for. When their efforts are accomplished with the desired good result, they have a good success. Our Lady is the patroness of all those who seek a good success in the service of her cause.

Early Catholic history of Marawila

As gleaned from the preserved details, the Christianity had come to Marawila in early 17th century, through the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who were at the time working in Chilaw and Madampe.

In a report of Rev. Fr. Andre Lopez, SJ dated 1644, he describes Marawila as follows: 'Three leagues from Caymel (Kammala). Patron St. Francis Xavier. It is a place where the Saint works many miracles. 600 Christians, 50 children".

Another short description of Marawila is found in the book titled, "Travels on Foot Through the Island of Ceylon" written in 1782. It says "Marawila is a little village in which cattle were grazing, where the 'ambalam' was situated on the side of a broad canal or ditch, half dried up, full of bushes, and innumerable multitude of frogs deafen you with their croaking".

From 1656, the year of the downfall of the Portuguese power in Ceylon and the expulsion of the Catholic Clergy, the Catholics of Marawila underwent the same spiritual privations as the Catholics in other parts of Ceylon. In 1687, Ven. Fr. Joseph Vaz came to Ceylon and a few years later he was joined by members of the Congregation of the Oratory of Goa.

He made Puttalam one of the centres for his ministry. On his way from there to Negombo and Colombo, he must have visited the Catholics of Marawila and confirmed them in their Faith. From a Report of the Oratorian Mission in Ceylon, sent to the Sacred Congregation to the Propagation of the Faith, it is clear that there was a church at Marawila in 1843.

Need for a new church

In 1848, the first Oblate Fathers came to Chilaw, which at the time was part of the Northern Vicariate. Upto the year 1850 the entire Pitigal Korale formed one mission, with Fr. Florentino Garcia, CC as the Missionary in Charge.

Later, the new division placed Fr. Floriano Oruna CC, at Chilaw and Marawila was served from Chilaw. Those were church building days in Ceylon. A great edifice was rising at Chilaw and the good Catholics of Marawila longed to have a big church to adorn their village, too. By a Deed of Gift dated 24th November 1856, Warnakula Aditta Arasailaitte Saveri Lowe of Marawila, gave to the Rt. Rev. Horatio Bettachini, the Vicar Apostolic of Jaffna, an acre of land, called Paragahayaye Owita or Walawwe Watte, for the purpose of building a church.

On January 16, 1860 the contract for the building was signed between Colombo Mahapatabendige Bastian Fernando of Moratuwa a contractor and 14 others, with Miguel Lowe, the Korale Hamy as chief signatory on behalf of the Catholics. To help the Parish Priest, the fishermen of the village gave their fish rent, whole and entire, to the building fund.

In 1861, Rev. Fr. Le Bescou, OMI, was appointed to the mission of Chilaw, which included the churches of Katuneriya, Marawila, Wennappuwa and Mattakotuwa. In a letter to the Oblate Missionary he wrote; "These four churches in comparison with the majority of the churches are not sufficient and I must say to the honour of our Catholics, who make it a point that their church should not be smaller than those of the neighbouring villages. Hence, everywhere they are thinking of building new churches. Already, the Catholics of Marawila have begun theirs. They will have a very large church and one of the finest in the Vicariate."

Consecration of Marawila church

The document of Consecration, now held in the archives of the Diocese of Chilaw, describes the ceremony; "In the year of Our Lord 1875, on the first day of February, we, Christopher Bonjean, OMI by the grace of God and of the Holy Apostolic See, Bishop of Medea and Vica Apostolic of Jaffna, solemnly consecrated under the title of the Presentation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, according to the rite prescribed by the Roman Pontifical, the church and the main altar in the town of Marawila."

An enormous crowd of people from every mission between Chilaw and Kochchikade attended the ceremony. The Bishop was assisted by many priests (Ceylon Catholic Messenger of February 26, 1875). the relics of six Holy Martyrs - St. Christopher, St. Lawrence, St. Innocentius, St. Victor, St. Candidus and St. Felicitas were included in the said altar.

We granted according to the usual form of the Church to all the Faithful and Indulge in one year on this day's, to those who indulge in fifty days, to those who were users in this church on first day of February."

A correspondent in the Ceylon Catholic Messenger described the Church as a "decent, strong and commodious building with galleries." All the doors, windows and their shutters were of flowered satin; the carvings on the walls were considered to be masterpieces. The altar was very plain and simple with the Tabernacle, a bronze statue of the Blessed Virgin with the Child Jesus and behind them all, a large printing on canvass by Rev. Fr. Chounavel, representing the Presentation in the Temple.

On 20th May, 1881, a new altar was set by Mgr. Melizan, OMI, the Co-adjutor to the Vicar Apostolic of Jaffna. An article appeared in Jaffna Catholic Guardian of May 28, 1881, described it in these words: The altar is really a fine one.

While coming out from Europe it was broken and the good people of Marawila, who had been to the trouble and expense of getting it out, were quite disheartened at the mishap. But now thanks to the skill and patient toil of Rev. Fr. C. Chounavel, the altar is in its place. Every piece has been carefully adjusted and there is no trace of any damage. It is a magnificent piece of sculpture, in fact, the most splendid altar I have ever seen in Ceylon. Well may the Catholics of Marawila be proud of it".