Marian devotion in Maldives

Marian Invocation of Maldives (National)
Popular devotion (not officially recognized by the Church)

The Maldives declares itself a State 100% Muslim, and citizenship is linked to the profession of Islam. It is illegal for non-Muslims to publicly express their faith, as well as to possess or disseminate material from non-Islamic religions; the import of Bibles and Christian literature is formally prohibited. For this reason there is no place of Christian veneration recognized throughout the archipelago, nor parish, vicariate or stable Catholic canonical structure.

Main data

Origin and history

The Maldives declares itself a State 100% Muslim, and citizenship is linked to the profession of Islam. It is illegal for non-Muslims to publicly express their faith, as well as to possess or disseminate material from non-Islamic religions; the import of Bibles and Christian literature is formally prohibited. For this reason there is no place of Christian veneration recognized throughout the archipelago, nor parish, vicariate or stable Catholic canonical structure.

The image and the sanctuary

There is no sanctuary, chapel, venerated image or local Marian advocation in Maldives. Nor does it contain in the recent literature consulted any Marian chapel or Portuguese-era church documented on the islands. The import of images, prints or rosaries is severely restricted.

Sponsorship and coronation

There is no Marian patronage or coronation of any advocation in the country.

Party and devotion

There is no public Marian party, procession or visible image. The few Christians, almost all of them from the services sector from India, Sri Lanka or the Philippines, live their faith only in private and with great discretion, under the risk of arrest or deportation.

Link to the Rosary

There is no public rosarian tradition in Maldives. There is a reasonable, but undocumented, assumption that among foreign Catholic workers there are those who pray the rosary in privacy; with available sources, Marian devotion in Maldives is a forced silence, lived in secret and without a public trail.