| International News

About 250,000 Catholics, Buddhists and Hindus including the Sri Lankan president and prominent religious leaders crowded Our Lady of Matara Shrine during its centenary celebration Sept. 6-9.

The revered Marian statue that is the shrine's main attraction is named for the coastal town of Matara, where the shrine is located, 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) south of Colombo.

People came from near and far to pray during the anniversary celebration for national peace, protection from all violence and personal favors.

The statue of the blessed mother with the child Jesus is carved from one piece of wood. It arrived in a huge wooden crate, hauled from the sea by fishermen in Weligama, about 12 kilometers (about eight miles) west of Matara. Inside rested the "most beautiful" statue, utterly untouched by seawater.

Subsequently, the statue was lost and found several times. In June 1911, while being transported back to Sri Lanka after restoration work in Belgium, a fierce storm struck and most cargo was destroyed or thrown overboard. The ship entered Colombo harbor without the statue.

Bishop Giuseppe van Reeth, a Belgian Jesuit and Galle diocese's first bishop, soon tracked it down. An atheist had taken possession of it, then smashed its face and thrown it away when his demand for money was refused.

The statue was restored to its original beauty, and the bishop brought it to the diocese, which covers the southernmost part of the island.

The statue was lost most recently in the December 2004 tsunami. It was swept away by the first of three waves that flooded the church, situated only 100 meters from the sea, said Father Charles Hewawasam, the shrine's administrator. Three days later it washed up on nearby property belonging to a Buddhist, who embraced the statue and ran to the parish with the good news.

The child Jesus still wore his crown – attached by a lone bolt and nut – and Mary still carried her scepter. The priest recalled how easily the crown would fall off whenever the statue was removed from its case. The scepter, he added, is just placed in her hand, and not screwed or fixed to the statue.

Father Hewawasam reminded the thousands of anniversary visitors of that fateful day when waves engulfed scores of struggling people, taking the statue and a large crucifix out to sea too. The first wave submerged the shrine in water more than three meters high, the level marked on a wall. It killed about 500 people in Matara.

Archbishop Oswald Gomis of Colombo, speaking at a centenary Mass, compared the well-known statue to Noah's ark. "She has sailed in the seawaters three times and come to safety. She can help us to safety in the turbulent waters of sin."

The statue's return provided hope, inspired rebuilding and renewed religious unity, said Father Lalith Fernando of Christ the Healer Church in Weligama. He told UCA News Sept. 9 that despite strong winds and dark clouds, the centenary celebration was an unhindered success.

Georgie Roberts, who traveled with 40 others from a parish in Colombo, told UCA News she was visiting for the first time. "Many proclaim their prayers were answered, so I vowed last year to resolve my house problem and reunite my broken family. Everything worked out well, and I came to thank the blessed virgin and pay my respects," she said.

Another Catholic visitor, Marian Nalini Anderson, said she had visited twice previously. She came especially for the centenary celebration and to thank the Blessed Mother for helping her find employment during dire times.

Like Roberts, Dagma Scharenguivel, who traveled with a group of 35, was visiting for the first time. The parishioner of St. Lawrence Church in Wellawatte, Colombo, wanted "to pray for her child's marriage, which is in turmoil," she told UCA News.

"Just seeing the statue made a lot of pilgrims cry," she said. "People are emotionally drawn to it."