![]() ![]() A number of parishes in Tamil Nadu are also named in her honor, and a 30-year-old shrine to her at Besant Nagar in Chennai draws hundreds of thousands of people for her feast and its novena. ![]() ![]() 1 Velankanni attracts millions of visitors a year, especially during the annual 11-day feast, culminating on September 8, and in May and at Christmas. The shrine, referred to by many Indians as the "Lourdes of the East," occupies much of a village where Mary is said to have appeared twice in the 16th century. The most important of these is a large shrine complex dedicated to Annai Velankanni (sometimes spelled Vailankanni), Our Lady of Velankanni, located a few hundred meters from the Bay of Bengal in the state of Tamil Nadu (or Tamilnadu). In addition to the many local shrines and the annual feasts that are hallmarks of parish life, there are several important pilgrimage sites that draw pilgrims from a distance. Shrines and feasts play a central and highly visible role in Indian Catholic practice. ![]()
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