Our Lady of the Miracles Cathedral, Kallianpur (Milagres Cathedral)

During the period of the Keladi Nayakas, Kallianpur emerged as an important Christian settlement in South Canara.[3] The church was constructed by the Portuguese in 1678, and dedicated to Our Lady of Miracles.[4] The land on which the church was built was gifted to the local Christians by Rani Chennammaji and Somashekara Nayaka I.[3]

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 acclaimed to be miraculous in and around the surrounding area. When the Rest India company lost the Anglo-Mysore war in 1784, Tipu Sultan gave secret orders to his commanders to seize all Christians in Canara and take them captive to Seringapatam. They carried out the secret orders and entered every church simultaneously, where Christians were expected to gather on the occasion of the Great Friday. Entire families with children in arms were cruelly hounded, herded& heckled into a forced march across the Western Ghauts. Only a few people managed to stay in hiding or escape into the forests. Nearly all churches in Canara were destroyed and as were the churches at Barkur and Patre. The priests had gone into hiding or had been captured and deported to Goa and Damaon. It was as 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, but she would not move or yield. They used force with tools but without success. But at that very moment, a large swarm of bees or 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 Soverna 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, who is to Our Lady of Miracles as their Milagri Amma, Kanarese for "mother of miracles".

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 home in Tonse, and venerated it secretly with his family and the rest of the Christians in night vigils with rosary and reading of the Christian Purana (Kristapurana) of Fr Thomas Stevens SJ. 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.,[5] which was inaugurated on 15 October 2012, at the church.[6][7]

• Saibini
• Statue_of_Our_Lady_of_Miracles,_Jaffna_patao

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  Milagres Cathedral interior
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  Milagres Church, (now Cathedral) Kallianpur Udupi during 1960s
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  Our Lady of miracles Kallianpur
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  Our Lady of Milagres in the shrine
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  Milagres Church Pulpit during 1960s

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Milagres Church (Kallianpur).

• Official website