OUR LADY OF VAILANKANNI

Catherine Nicolette;
Our Lady of Health - Vailankanni
In the mid sixteenth century,  a little Hindu boy named Tamil Krishnannesti Sankaranaranayam lived in Vailankanni, Tamil Nadu in India. 
Tamil was a shepherd boy, and he used to walk each day from Vailankanni to Nagapattinam to deliver milk to a wealthy gentleman who lived there. 
One day, Tamil felt tired as he walked from Vailankanni, and lay down under a banyan tree beside a pond to nap.
He woke up when a strong gust of wind began to blow.

Lady of celestial beauty
A Lady of celestial beauty stood there, holding a child in her arms.
The Lady greeted him with a motherly smile, and asked him for some milk for her Child.
Tamil was joyful to share the milk with her.
The Lady, since identified as Mary of Nazareth, thanked Tamil before she disappeared with her Child.
When Tamil reached the home of the wealthy gentleman, he narrated what had happened.
When Tamil and the gentleman lifted the lid of the milk pot the boy had been carrying, the pot brimmed over with milk.
Tamil and the gentleman, also a Hindu, hastened back to the pond.
Thereafter, the pond became known as Matha Kulam (Mary's Pond).

Poor village widow
A few years after this occurrence, a poor widow lived in the village with her congenitally lame son.
In order to make ends meet, the boy would sell buttermilk next to a huge banyan tree.
His mother would carry him there, and leave him to sell the milk.
One extremely hot day, he was waiting for customers and no one came.
Instead, he saw a Lady of stunning beauty standing before him, holding a Baby in her arms.
Both wore white garments.
The Lady looked at the boy, and with a charming smile asked him for a cup of buttermilk for her Child.
Without hesitation, the boy gave the cup of buttermilk. 
He saw the Lady feeding her Child.
The Lady then cast a benevolent look at the boy, and turned towards the Child in her arms as if entreating Him.

Go to Nagapattinam
The Lady thanked the boy for his generosity, and asked him to go to Nagapattinam to see a certain wealthy gentleman living there.
He was to tell him of this apparition and her desire to have a chapel built at Vailankanni in her honour.
The boy - while eager to do as she asked - had to tell her of his impairment, upon which the Lady bade him to get up and to walk.
Immediately, the boy leaped to his feet. He was thrilled when he found he could walk, and ran all the way to Nagapattinam - at least ten kilometres away.

Thatched chapel at Vailankanni
Upon reaching Nagapattinam, he found the gentleman and told his story.
The gentleman was astonished because he had a similar vision of Our Lady in his sleep the night before.
Thus he believed the boy's story immediately.
He soon put up a thatched chapel at Vailankanni.
An altar was erected in the chapel, with a lovely statue of Mary of Nazareth holding the baby Jesus in her arms.

Health cures
Many health cures took place during prayer by supplicants at Vailankanni.
Due to the cures, the Lady became known as Our Lady of Health, Vailankanni - ஆரோக்கிய மாதா
This wonderful place of pilgrimage has become known as the Lourdes of the East.

Our Lady of Vailankanni Novena Prayer
Oh Most Holy Virgin! You were chosen by the Most Adorable Trinity from all eternity to be the most pure Mother of Jesus. 
Permit me, your humble and devoted servant, to remind you of the joy received in the instant of the Most Sacred Incarnation of our Divine Lord and during the nine months you carried Him in your chaste womb. 
I wish most sincerely that I could renew, or even increase that joy, by the fervour of my prayers.

Oh! Tender Mother of the afflicted! Grant me under my present necessities that special protection You have promised to those who devoutly commemorate this ineffable joy. 
Relying on the infinite mercies of your Divine Son, trusting in the promise which He has made that those who ask should receive, and filled with confidence in your powerful prayers, I most humbly entreat you intercede for me. 
I beg you to obtain for me the favours which I petition for in this novena, if it be the Holy Will of God to grant them; to ask for me whatever graces I most stand in need of.

(Here specify your requests)

I desire by this novena, which I now offer in your honour, to prove the full confidence I have in your intercession. 
Accept it, I beseech you, in honour of that supernatural love and joy, with which your Immaculate Heart was replenished during the abode of your Divine Son within you.
(Repeat the Hail Mary nine times)
and then say -

Oh! Mother of God! accept these salutations in union with the respect and veneration with which the Angel Gabriel first hailed you, "Full of Grace" I desire that they may become so many gems in your crown of glory, which will increase in brightness to the end of the world.

I beseech you, Oh! comforter of the afflicted, by the joy you received, when the Word was made flesh, to obtain for me the favours and graces, which I have now implored through your powerful intercession. 
To this end I offer you all the good works which have ever been performed in God's honour. 
I most humbly entreat you for the love of the Jesus, with which your heart has always been filled, to hear my humble prayers and to obtain my requests. Amen.