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St. Anne's National Shrine Thalawila (Google Street View) |
St. Anne's National Shrine (Sinhala: තලවිල ශාන්ත ආනා ජාතික සිද්ධස්ථානය) is a catholic church situated in Thalawila in Puttalam District, Sri Lanka. It is considered one of the oldest national Catholic shrines in the country.
History
The traditional history behind the inauguration of the Thalawila church shows the religious beliefs of the people of the area. It is said that a statue of St. Anne that was floated and placed in a tree cave on the beach one day from a wrecked ship dispersed light at night. The people who gathered to see from which the light was emitting realised that it was from the statue in the tree cave. They began to worship the statue keeping it there without moving but later removed it to a small hut (Fernando & Dharmasiri, 2020).
The foundation of the present church was laid by Oratorian Pedro Caetano in 1837 (Jayasinghe, 2016). Later, the successors of the Oratorians, the congregation of the Oblates of Mary added the transepts of the church (Jayasinghe, 2016). As inscribed on one of the roof beams, Henry Arthur Dinaux began the work of the southern transept in 1880 and was completed in 1884 (Jayasinghe, 2016). The work of the northern transept was completed by Henry Joulainin in 1887 (Jayasinghe, 2016).
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References
Journal Articles
1) Fernando, V.N. and Dharmasiri, L.M., 2020. Physical geographical and socio-economical geographical factors contribute towards the temporal and spatial diffusion of christianity in Sri Lanka: a case study in Puttlam district. International Journal of Science and Research, 9(9), pp.1310-1319.
2) Jayasinghe, S., 2016. Nineteenth Century Catholic Church Architecture in Sri Lanka: Evolution of a Tropical Model. Bath, Proceedings of the ID@ 50 Integrated Design Conference, University of Bath.