Mumbai: It’s a tiny church, so small that you might miss it if you happened to be strolling down Irla Society Lane in Vile Parle. But, come September, the area assumes a different look. Huge crowds arrive from across the city — from different faiths — to pray at Our Lady of Health of Velankanni Church tucked away in a small alley.
The church’s origins are humble.
On April 14, 1968, the Pontifical Institute for Mission Extension, an evangelical organisation of the Catholic church, felt the need for a Bombay base, and chose Irla, then more a village than a suburb. A resident, Anthony Misquitta, donated some of his land, and initially a small shed served as the church. A four-foot high plaster statue of Mary came in all the way from Italy to grace the new parish. Maurine Misquitta (no relation of Anthony), now 75, who has been a member of the church from its inception, recalls how all the residents had gone to the airport to receive the statue.
The local East Indian community began attending regularly, and soon, the community felt the need to build a bigger church. They built a new structure, which opened in 1977. The church is quite adequate for the 250-odd families who are its regular parishioners. But for eleven days towards the end of the monsoon, things change.
On August 29, the church hoists a flag bearing its emblem. This signals the start of the annual novenas — a series of nine prayers — that mark the birthday of Mary, mother of Jesus, which end on September 8, which is celebrated as Mother Mary’s birthday.
During the days of the feast, daily attendance shoots into the lakhs. There are ten masses every day, in four languages — English, Marathi, Tamil and Konkani — with the chapel open from 5 a.m. to 9.30 p.m.
“It still is a small church,” Ms. Misquitta says, “but the feast of Mother Mary now attracts huge crowds, with word having spread around about miraculous healings that take place here.” The church offers special prayers for the sick and invalids, and the belief has grown that miraculous healing results. The believers that throng the church during this time include many from other faiths. So many, in fact, that there are doctors and nurses in attendance to assist those who might need help.
One with unshakeable faith is Diana Edulji, former India cricket captain, who credits the church with her complete remission from cancer. It’s not just the healing that brings her back, she says: “Whenever I have had problems, I take up novenas and somehow the Blessed Mother helps me resolve my problems. Reciting her novena makes me feel very strong, mentally, physically and internally.”
The church receives so many prayer requests that the administration has now evolved a bulk prayer-handling system of sorts. Petitioners can take a form, fill in some details and tick some boxes, then drop the form into a box. The priests then pray over these requests.
Outside the church, the feast spawns a full-fledged fair. Shops and temporary stalls sell all kinds of things to the devout, including the famous East Indian bottle masala and similar offerings form Goa, halwa from Kerala, and cooked gram that hungry buyers can munch on right there.
A special feature of the church fair is the shops selling candles and wax models shaped to represent a prayer request, which are then offered by the devout at the church. Once, they were shaped like hearts or a limb to request divine healing for those body parts; they were the ones you would see most. Then there were houses or cars, for prayers for those more worldly items. Now, says Rosy D’Souza, whose family has run a candle shop for decades, more abstract thoughts find representation too. “Earlier the models were essentially for healing ailments or for homes, but now people’s needs have changed. People seek success in careers, or want jobs abroad, hence we make candles for those needs too.” The assignment abroad is represented by a shape much like a card, to represent a visa.
An important part of the pageantry is the procession, usually on the Sunday preceding September 8. Parish priest Ravi Marneni says that that is when the statue is taken out of the church in a huge procession. “It is believed that Our Lady showers the people of the neighbourhood with her blessings as she visits them,” Fr. Marneni says. “Hence, huge crowds collect to receive her blessings as she passes by.”
Old parishioners like Playson Fonseca recall that the statue would be carried by parishioners on a wooden palkhi . Our Lady now rides in a flower-bedecked open jeep. Children strew flowers as she makes her way around the parish, and young boys from a ‘statue squad’ walk with her as guards. The throng is so dense that children from the Road Safety Patrol squads in local schools also chip in to help manage the crowd.
“Those days,” Ms. Misquitta recalls, “Mother Mary’s procession would move through the small bylanes of Irla village. But, soon after the statue moved into an open jeep, the procession got restricted to the main roads. It also had to do partially due to the narrowing down of the village bylanes itself.”
Part of the tradition is that the statue is bedecked with saris given by believers. (These saris come in all year round, and the fabric around her changes every week.)
The 2017 feast has just concluded. It heralded the start of the golden jubilee year, which the church will celebrate with retreats and other activities. Also planned are pilgrimages to the Our Lady of Fatima shrine in Portugal, and to the Irla church’s patron church, the original Vailankanni shrine in Tamil Nadu.
