Verghese V Joseph –
Bengaluru: The newly-elected and India’s first Dalit Cardinal, His Eminence Anthony Poola, will commemorate on Saturday the bicentennial celebration of the 200-year-old belfry of Our Lady Periyanayagi Shrine at Konankuppam in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu in southern India.
Cardinal Poola will concelebrate the festive Eucharistic celebration at 5.30 pm in the presence of Most Rev. Dr. Francis Kalist, the Archbishop of Pondicherry – Cuddalore alongwith other priests.
On Saturday, nearly 2500 pilgrims will participate in the annual pilgrim walk from Infant Jesus Church, Ulundurpet to Our Lady Periyanayagi Shrine, Konankuppam followed by a high mass at 5.30 pm.
Periyanayagi Madha Shrine is a famous Roman Catholic Church dedicated to Mother Mary of Jesus. It was constructed in the 17th century by an Italian Jesuit missionary Fr. Constantine Beschi, also called as Veeramamunivar (Father of Tamil prose). Every year, the church carnival with flag hoisting is held for ten days from January 14 to 23.
Legend has it that there was a man called Kachirayar in Mugasaparur a village in Cuddalore district. He had no child. Every day he used to pray to God. One day, Our Lady appeared to him in his dream and said, “Kachirayar, I’m alone in the forest. If you build a chapel for me, I’ll give a child to you”. After saying this she disappeared. Hearing this, he was very much happy and began to search for the statue in the forest. As they cut the bushes and trees, they found the statue behind a big bush. This statue is placed in the shrine till today. People constructed a small chapel and placed this statue there and began to venerate it.
Last month, Pope Francis installed Archbishop Anthony Poola of Hyderabad alongwith Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrão of Goa and Daman and the President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) as Cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.
Cardinal Anthony Poola, born on 15th November, 1961, at Chindhukur, Andhra Pradesh joined the minor seminary in Kurnool and subsequently studied at St. Peter’s Pontifical Major Seminary, Bangalore. He was ordained a priest on 20th February, 1992. At the age of 46, he was appointed Bishop of Kurnool on 8th February, 2008 having received Episcopal Ordination on 19th April 2008. On 19th November, 2020, at the age of 59, he was appointed as the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hyderabad, being installed as its eleventh Archbishop on 3rd January, 2021.