Our Lady of the Miracles Cathedral, Kallianpur

History

During the period of the Keladi Nayakas, Kallianpur emerged as an important Christian settlement in South Canara. The church was constructed by the Portuguese in 1678, and dedicated to Our Lady of Miracles. The land on which the church was built was gifted to the local Christians by Rani Chennammaji and Somashekara Nayaka I.

The miraculous statue of Milagres Kallianpur extracted from writings of Mr. Charles E. G Lewis Kallianpur dated 1982. The statue of Our Lady of Milagres, Kallianpur is popularly claimed to be miraculous in and around the surrounding region. when the English lost war in 1784, the enemies of Christians gave secret orders to his commanders to seize all Christians in Canara and take them captive to Srirangapatana. They carried out the secret orders and entered every Christian settlement simultaneously throughout Kanara. Complete families with children in arms were brutally hounded, herded and marched captive across the Western Ghats. Only a few people managed to stay in hiding. The churches were destroyed and also were the churches at Barkur and Patre. The priests had gone into hiding or had been captured and deported to Goa. It was this time the enemy soldiers played havoc destroying everything and they attempted to remove the Statue of our Lady on the High Altar for desecration. They found it was not possible to remove it or lift it with hands. She would not move. She would not yield. They used force with tools but without success. But at that very moment, a large swarm of bees (wasps) suddenly came upon them unknown from where and attacked and stung them. They ran helter shelter, the venomous bees followed them. They rode down as far as the Suvarna River; the wasps still pursued them until the soldiers dived and tried to hide in the water. This occurrence was known far and wide in the area and produced awe and reverence among the people including Non-Christians to Our Lady their ‘MILAGRI AMMA’. At that time one of the parishioners who was in hiding Mr. Menino Francies Luis of Nadu Kudru, Tonse, secretly carried away the Miraculous Statue from the devastated church after much praying and promising that he would bring and place her with due honour when the ordeal would be over. He carried her to his ancient home in Thonse and venerated it secretly with his family and the rest of the Christians in night vigils with rosary and reading of the Christian Purana of Fr. Thomas Stevens S.J. The statue had sometimes to be hidden in other houses and specially one Hindu house whose descendants were honoured every year with a candle on the occasion of the Annual parish feast. When things brightened up with the enemies death and Priests came after return of Christians from captivity, the Miraculous Statue was brought back with great honour and Jubilation amidst rejoicing through the river and road in a colourful two mile long route boat procession and re-enthroned in the church on the high Altar(currently installed in the Shrine ). In memory and honour of this event a yearly boat procession of our Lady on a gaily and artistically decorated throne ( Cherell) with much solemnity grandeur and pomp was celebrated at first from Nadu Kudru to the church on the eve of the parish feast from the ancient house of Mr. Menino Francis Luis; but in the latter years the procession was from its neighbouring Honappa Kudru from a house of his direct descendants for over a century. In the final years the procession commenced from Our Lady’s Island Property of Barikudru due to uncertainty of tides to bring it from Tonse. Glowing accounts of the grandeur of those annual evening festive processions and the devotion generated when all communities joined the celebrations with decorative lamps, arches and buntings on its route were narrated with pride and nostalgia for those days by men of the generation that has now passed. It would be interesting to know another tradition. The statue used for those processions is the one now used for Cherell in the church for processions on the feast days. This statue was found on the Malpe shore and was delivered by the fisher men to the church. It is believed to be the statue placed by Vasco da Gama on the Thonse Par Islands when he landed there and which were named by him as St. Mary's Islands.

In 2012, it was appointed as the Cathedral church of the newly formed diocese, Roman Catholic Diocese of Udupi., which was inaugurated on October 15, 2012, at the church.