About this stamp
The Lourdes of the East
India Post issued this ₹5 stamp on 22 January 2013 on the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health at Velankanni (Vailankanni) in Tamil Nadu, a shrine of the Virgin Mary venerated since the mid-sixteenth century. Tradition links it with three events: the appearance of the Madonna and Child to a shepherd boy, the healing of a lame buttermilk seller, and the rescue of Portuguese sailors from a storm, who built the first chapel when they came safely ashore.
Pope John XXIII raised the shrine to a minor basilica on 3 November 1962 and called it “the Lourdes of the East”. Its annual novena draws millions of pilgrims.
India Post has no brochure for this issue online, so this text draws on Wikipedia.
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