More than half a million flock to Our Lady of Madhu 

Over 500,000 pilgrims from across the island gathered in Mannar last week to mark the annual feast of Our Lady of Madhu.

The August 15 festival, marking the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has long been one of the most significant events in the Catholic calendar. The site is the most revered Catholic shrine on the island.

Despite decades of war and ongoing militarisation across the Tamil homeland, Madhu continues to draw worshippers. During the armed conflict, the church grounds became a site of refuge and later, of tragedy.

In the 1990s, as fighting intensified, around 15,000 war-displaced Tamils erected makeshift camps around the shrine in search of safety. That sanctuary was shattered on 20 November 1999, when heavy artillery bombardment struck the church grounds. At least 44 displaced Tamils were killed and more than 60 wounded. 

Nilanthan, a Jaffna-based writer and political analyst, told ucanews the shrine remained symbolic, particularly for Tamils who continue to endure displacement and land dispossession.

“Once she was displaced from her original place [in 1670 during Dutch persecution], Maatha never returned but stayed in the densely forested Vanni area — similar to a section of the Tamil community who are yet to resettle in their own lands,” he noted.

See more photographs below.