Archdiocese of Madras – Mylapore
A parish family in Muthamizh Nagar, Kodungaiyur, entrusted to Arokiya Madha — Our Lady of Health — since 1989. Whoever you are, you are welcome here.
Welcome to our parish
Across Tamil Nadu, Our Lady is loved under one particular title: Arokiya Madha, Our Lady of Good Health. Her great shrine at Velankanni on the Coromandel coast draws millions of pilgrims each year, and Pope John XXIII, raising it to a minor basilica in 1962, called it “the Lourdes of the East.”
Our own church began in 1989 with just thirty families, and was raised to a parish in its own right in 2001. What began as a small congregation has grown into a busy parish family — with catechism classes, an active choir, anbiyam prayer groups meeting in homes across the streets, and a feast each September that fills the whole neighbourhood with light. In 2026 we keep our Silver Jubilee.
Whether you have prayed here all your life, have just moved into the area, or are simply passing by and drawn in by the bell, there is a place for you at this altar.
“Whatever he says to you, do it.” John 2:5 — Our Lady at Cana
The story behind her title
Devotion to Our Lady of Health grew from three events remembered at Velankanni across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Each one is a story of ordinary people — a shepherd, a lame boy, frightened sailors — meeting a Mother who did not turn them away.
About 1570
A shepherd boy carrying milk to a master’s house met a radiant woman with a child in her arms, who asked for a little milk for her son. He gave it gladly. When he reached the house and apologised for the loss, the jug was found brimming over — and cool, in the heat of the day. The pond there is still called Matha Kulam, the Mother’s Pond.
About 1597
A boy crippled from birth sold buttermilk near a banyan tree. The same Lady appeared with her Child, who asked for a drink. When she told the boy to go and carry word to a Catholic gentleman in Nagapattinam, he rose and walked. A thatched chapel was raised on the spot in thanksgiving — the first shrine to Arokia Matha.
17th century
A Portuguese merchant ship bound from Macao to Ceylon was caught in a violent storm in the Bay of Bengal. The crew called on Our Lady as Star of the Sea, and the sea grew calm. They came ashore safely on 8 September — her birthday — and in gratitude rebuilt her shrine in brick and mortar.
Our parish feast
Because those sailors landed on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 8 September became her feast at Velankanni — and it is our parish feast too. The flag is hoisted over the kodimaram on 29 August, and the ten days that follow are given to novena prayer and a car procession each evening. On the day itself the church, the tower and the whole street are strung with light.
Our parish feast falls each year on 8 September.
8September
Parish life
A parish is not a building but the people who fill it. These are some of the ways our parishioners serve, learn and pray together.
Neighbours gathering street by street for the Word of God, the rosary and one another’s troubles. The heart of how this parish prays.
Children and young people prepared for First Communion and Confirmation, taught by volunteers from among our own families.
Those who carry the singing and the serving at Mass — and who make the liturgy beautiful without ever being noticed.
Visiting the sick and the housebound, praying the rosary together, and bringing Our Lady’s care to those who cannot come to church.
Young parishioners meeting for formation, service and friendship — and taking a leading hand in the feast each September.
Quiet, practical help for families in difficulty in our own neighbourhood, in the spirit of St Vincent de Paul.
Announcements
Sample notice
The novena prayers through the ten days feast will be held after evening Mass each day. All parishioners are warmly invited.
Sample notice
Parents wishing to enrol children for the new catechism year may give their names at the parish office after Sunday Mass.
Sample notice
Basic Christian Community gatherings continue in homes through the month. Please check the notice board for your street’s day and time.
These three notices are examples showing how announcements will appear. Real parish announcements will replace them.
Visit us
Our church stands at the corner of North Avenue in Muthamizh Nagar, Kodungaiyur — the white façade with the tall open bell tower and the red illuminated crosses. It is easily reached from Kodungaiyur bus terminus and from the Erukkanchery high road.
Follow us
Masses, the feast, the car procession and parish celebrations on YouTube, and photographs from parish life on Instagram — for anyone who cannot be here in person, and for the many families of this parish now living far from Muthamizh Nagar.
youtube.com/@ourladyofhealthchurchmutha6417 instagram.com/our_lady_of_health_church_yo
For baptisms, marriages, anointing of the sick, or to speak with the parish priest, please telephone the parish office or call in after Mass.
