Posted On: 05 April, 2025

Chennai’s Lourdes Shrine commemorated its post-centenary silver jubilee from 31 January to 11 February 2025. The celebrations got underway with the hoisting of the Marian flag by the INM Salesian Provincial Fr. L. Don Bosco SDB on 31 January.  The underlying theme of the festivities was, Journeying with Mary as Pilgrims of Hope in the Jubilee Year.

Two significant moments in the 11-day-long celebrations were the solemn Eucharistic procession and Holy Mass on 8 February, presided over by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Lawrence Pius D.D., Bishop of Dharmapuri, and the grand Marian procession and Holy Mass officiated by the Most Rev. Dr. George Antonysamy D.D., Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore on 9 February on the sprawling railway grounds. On 11 February, the Most Rev. Dr. A. M. Chinnappa SDB, Archbishop Emeritus of Madras-Mylapore and a former parish priest of Lourdes Shrine, presided over the festive Eucharistic and brought down the flag, signalling the conclusion of the celebrations.

The Lourdes Shrine parish in Perambur, a throbbing neighbourhood in Chennai, was started as a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes in 1879 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. It was the second church in Asia dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, a mere 21 years after the apparitions in Lourdes. The first such church was at Villianur, near Pondicherry, built in 1877, where Fr Tarbes M.E.P., a cousin of St. Bernadette, was the parish priest.

Lourdes Shrine at Perambur was erected as a parish in 1900 and entrusted to the Salesians of Don Bosco in 1934. Fr. Michael Murray SDB, an Irish Salesian missionary, who arrived in Perambur in 1935 transformed the small parish into a vibrant centre of Marian devotion and a National Shrine. The Catholic population of the area grew steadily and by the 1970s, Lourdes Shrine, Perambur, was one of the largest parishes in India. Between 1953 and 1960, a grand two-storied church, resembling the Basilica at Lourdes, was built there. In the last 70 years, nine other parishes have been carved out of this parish and still it remains the largest parish in the Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore. Eight Catholic schools within the parish territory impart education to over 8500 children and youth.

The 11th of every month is celebrated as a Marian Day at Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in Perambur when thousands of people from far and near visit the shrine to pray at the grotto, make their confessions, and attend Mass at the Shrine to seek Mother Mary’s blessings.