Our Lady's vision to a shepherd boy
The story goes back to 16th Century a shepherd boy from the village used to carry milk every day to a rich man in Nagapattinam and which is ten kilometres away on an unusually hot summer day the boy was tired and thirsty so he stopped near a small pond on whose bank was a huge banyan tree after quenching his thirst with the water from the pond he rested for a while in the shade of the banyan tree soon the boy fell into a deep sleep suddenly he was amazed by the sweet vision of a beautiful lady holding in her hand a most charming child of divine appearance the boy could not take his eyes off the lady in the child he was spellbound by this heavenly vision the lady greeted him with a motherly smile and asked the shepherd boy for some milk for her child he joyfully offered the milk and seeing of a Bilssful Smile spread over the face of the heavenly baby the boy experienced deep satisfaction the lady hands over the leftover milk pot to the boy and blesses him for his gratefulness he was amazed by this vision of the lady of celestial Beauty holding a lovely child in her arms the boy continued his journey with half-empty milk pot when he reached home of the rich man to whom he used to carry the milk every day he begged to be excused for his unusual delay and for the shortage of milk the boy narrated to the rich man about the apparition he had of a lady of uncommon beauty will the cherubic child him how he had given a portion of the mill tea was carrying to the child of the lady's request as the rich man opened the lid of the mill pot to their surprise the pot was overflowing with the milk the story of the apparition of the lady and child in the miraculous overflowing of the milk spread like wildfire throughout the neighborhood the master was fascinated by the extraordinary phenomenon witnessed by the boy and he hastened to the spot where the lady had appeared with her child. Mother Mary and the Child Jesus appeared to them there is an encouraging Vision and Future plan of God in the place
Our Lady vision in Curing the Lame Boy
Our Lady to the buttermilk vendor a few years later Vailankanni was privileged to be blessed with another apparition of the Blessed Mother and this time to a poor lame boy of the village there was a poor Widow and her name son lived in Velenkanai the widow would carry the lame boy and leave him under the banyan tree with a pot of buttermilk for livelihood the boy used to sell buttermilk for thirsty travelers who took shelter under the banyan tree on an extremely hot day the boy was waiting for customers but as no one turned up he was little disappointed but his disappointment turned into a joy when he saw a lady of stunning beauty standing before him holding a baby of dazzling beauty in her arms the lady looked at the boy with a charming smile and asked him for a cup of buttermilk for the child without hesitation the boy gave her a cup of buttermilk with a sense of deep satisfaction the boy saw the lady feeding her child with the buttermilk he had offered her the lady gratefully acknowledged the youths generosity and requested another favor of him Mary asked the boy to go to Nagapattinam him to tell a certain Catholic man living there that she and her son had appeared in the area and that he should build a church there to commemorate the apparition the boy told Mary that he'd like to go but he couldn't walk on his own so he had to wait for his mother to arrive at the end of the day and carry him there Mary urged him to try and when he did he realized that he had been miraculously healed of his disability the boy then ran to Nagapattinam to narrate the apparition to the gentleman he informed the gentleman that she had sent him as her messenger to ask him to build a chapel in her honor in Vailankanni the gentleman had no doubt in believing the boy as he himself had a similar vision of our lady in his sleep the previous night bidding him build a chapel in her honor with the willing cooperation of the people of that locality the man erected a chapel for our lady at the sight of her second appearance in vain and this Chapel became a holy place of veneration to our Blessed Mother and she was called henceforth Mother of Good Health (“Arokia Matha”) in Tamil.
Our Lady Saving the Portuguese Sailor from the Storm
Portuguese sailors ship caught in a storm the third incident occurred when the Portuguese sailors were sailing from Macau to Colombo through Bay of Bengal while it was cruising towards the West to reach the Bay of Bengal it was caught in a violent storm the storm grew violent in the waves rose high the high waves hit the ship hard and the sailors were terrified the helpless sailors fell on their knees and prayed to mother Mary star of the sea for their rescue they vowed to build a church in her honor wherever she helped them land safely their sincere prayer was instantly heard and all of a sudden the stone was subsided and sea became calm soon the ship was pushed to safety to the shores of Vailankanni on landing the first thing the sailors did was to fall on their knees and thank God in the Blessed Virgin Mary for having saved their lives next they transformed the chapel erected by the Catholic gentleman of nagger patting him into a beautiful stone build chapel in Thanksgiving the sailors rebored the shrine to our lady of good health and continued to enhance it whenever their voyage brought them to the area the merchants dedicated the chapel to Our Lady on September 8th to celebrate the Feast of her Nativity in to mark the date of their safe landing to Vailankanni the shrine was elevated to the status of minor Basilica and merged with the major Basilica of Mary.
Ave Maria.
God bless you all
