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Poondi, Our Lady of Lourdes Basilica |
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Name: |
Poondi, Our Lady of Lourdes Basilica | |||||||||||||
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Estd: |
17th Century | ||||||||||||||
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Feast Day: |
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| E-mail: | poondimadha@hotmail.com | ||||||||||||||
Website: |
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| Telephone (O) | +91 4362 280422 | ||||||||||||||
| Contact: Our Lady of Lourdes Basilica! Ponndi Thanjavur Dt 712103 | |||||||||||||||
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History |
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| In the beginning of the eighteenth century (1714-1718) a great Italian Jesuit missionary Rev. Fr. Constantine Joseph Beschi S.J. popularly known as "Veeramamunivar" built a church and named it as the church of "Mary Queen of Immaculate Conception". It is in the dome of this church the statue of the miraculous Lady of Poondi is placed. This miraculous statue is one of the three statues that were made in France after the apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes. Rev.Fr.Darres MEP brought this staue from France. According to available records when the French Missionary Fathers ( MEP Fathers ) where taking care of the Pastrol Mission in Kumbakonam Diocese Father Mette Louis Jules started a Catechetical School in Poondi around the year 1900 to train Catechetics. Rev.Fr.Lourdes Xavier after being appointed as Parish Priest of Poondi on 1st September 1955 gave immediate attention to improve the condition of the Church the central roof of which was in a bad condition and it was feared that it might collapse at any moment causing great damage. So he consulted an engineer. They wanted to demolish only the central roof without any damage to the front elevation the doom and the altar. Fr.Lourdes Xavier was worried as it would cost too much and it would be beyond his means to find the necessary funds to reconstruct the Church. Fr.Lourdes Xavier a great devotee of Our Lady trusted and prayed to Our Lady of Poondi to reveal to him a way out to this problem. Inspired by an inner voice he predicted that the central roof of the church would come down on a particular day and time and he did. This is vividly rembembered and described by people even today. His Eminence Simon Cardinal Lourdusamy declared the Shrine of our Lady of Poondi as a permanent pilgrimage centre of our Lady of Immaculate Conception. On 03.08.1999 the shrine was declared as Minor Basilica by Pope John Paul II. Poondi is a tiny village situated in between the rivers Cauvery and Colleroon Alamelupuram in Thiruvaiyaru taluk of Thanjavur district of the state of Tamilnadu in South India.The nearest town about 3kms away is Thirukattupalli. | |||||||||||||||
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