Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The Virgin of Vailankanni: the milk that never ran out"

Velankanni (India) (16th-17th centuries)

On the coast of Tamil Nadu, overlooking the Bay of Bengal, stands the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Velankanni, affectionately known as "the Lourdes of the East." Millions of pilgrims, both Christian and Hindu, flock there each year, drawn by the fame of a Virgin Mary who heals both body and soul. The main feast day is September 8th, the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.

The devotion stems from three endearing stories that tradition itself recognizes as oral history, lacking contemporary documentation. The first tells of a Hindu boy carrying milk who lay down wearily by a pond and was visited by a Lady with a Child in her arms, who asked him for some milk for the little one. The boy willingly gave it to her; upon arriving home, he explained his delay, and when he uncovered the jug, the milk was miraculously untouched.

The second story tells of another child, lame from birth, to whom the Virgin also asked for milk; after receiving it, his leg was healed. The third recounts the tale of Portuguese sailors caught in a storm in the bay: they invoked the Virgin, were saved, and, in gratitude, enlarged the chapel and promised to honor the Mother on her Nativity Day.

It is important to make a clear distinction. All these episodes belong to oral tradition, collected relatively late; even Church sources acknowledge that there is no contemporary documentation of the apparitions. The dates (16th century for the apparitions, 17th century for the shipwreck) are approximate. What is well documented is the development of the sanctuary: the parish around 1771, during the Dutch persecution, and its elevation to a minor basilica by Saint John XXIII on November 3, 1962.