2023-08-12 09:00:00
For many years now, every year in mid-August, the small German city of Kevelaer for one day becomes a place of pilgrimage for Tamils living in Europe – mostly those who were forced to leave Sri Lanka during the civil war. In 2023, the Tamil pilgrimage will take place on Saturday 12 August. Usually 10-15 thousand people come to the Lower Rhine to bow to the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Madonna and Child comforter of the mourners on an old postcard from KevelaerPhoto: Arkivi/akpool GmbH/picture alliance
In general, Kevelaer is the second most important place for Catholic pilgrimage in Germany – after the Bavarian Altötting. Pope John Paul II visited here in 1987.
The pilgrimage season in Kevelaer opens on May 1st and ends on November 1st. During these months, more than 800 thousand people from Germany, the neighboring Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and other countries come here to bow to the miraculous image every year.
Now, in addition to the Tamil pilgrimage and various church holidays, one of the traditional events here is also a special service for motorcyclists at the beginning of each summer, which attracts more than a thousand bikers.
How did Kevelar become a Tamil pilgrimage site?
In 1983, a civil war began on the island of Sri Lanka. The fighting, which claimed at least 80,000 lives, ceased in 2009. At the same time, more than 140 thousand Tamils are still considered missing.
As the organizers of the pilgrimage from the Catholic Tamil Mission emphasize, for the Tamils, Kevelar has become a place of prayer and meetings with relatives and friends from all over Europe. On this August day, the atmosphere of a big family holiday, colorful and calm, reigns here.
Only in Germany now there are about 8,000 Tamil Catholics, in general – about 60 thousand representatives of this people. There are large religious communities in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. At the same time, not only Tamil Christians come to Kevelar, but also followers of Hinduism, who also venerate the Virgin Mary.
At the Candle Chapel during the traditional Tamil pilgrimage Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa/picture alliance Around the Candle Chapel Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa/picture alliance A participant in the traditional annual Tamil pilgrimage to Kevelaer Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa/picture alliance
The first Tamil pilgrimage to Kevelar took place in 1987, in the midst of a military confrontation between separatists from the Tamil Eelam Liberation Tiger Army and Sri Lankan government forces. Only fifty believers participated in the first pilgrimage, asking the Virgin Mary for peace. Now whole families come to Kevelaer – by car, bus, train.
In 2009, Sri Lankan government forces carried out a final operation against the last units of the Tamil separatists in the north of the country. The civil war is considered over. Prayers for peace continue.
Painting “Pilgrimage to Kevelaer” (“Wallfahrt nach Kevelaer”) by German painter Hubert Salentin (1822-1910)Photo: Polizei Düsseldorf/dpa/picture alliance
Comforter of the mourners. The history of the miraculous image
Comforter of the mourners (German Trösterin der Betrübten, Latin Consolatrix Afflictorum) – this is the name of this image. The pilgrimage to Kevelaer to the miraculous image of the Most Holy Theotokos began in the 17th century during the Thirty Years’ War. The first chapel for her was built here in 1643.
Kevelaer was a small rural settlement on the Lower Rhine near the Netherlands several centuries ago. On Christmas Day 1641, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a traveling merchant in these places near the wayside cross and wished that he build a small chapel on this site. The vision was repeated twice. The merchant, although he was not a rich man, decided to fulfill the request – however, after another mystical event …
A few months after Easter, the merchant’s wife was offered to buy an image of the Virgin Mary from Luxembourg – a small miraculous image made of copper. Offered by soldiers passing along the Lower Rhine. She refused, but at night she saw the icon in a dream in a stream of divine light. In the morning, the wife told her husband about the night vision. They found the soldiers… It turned out that this light was also seen by the guards of the night guard.
Just five years after the events described, the synod of the Catholic Church decided to consider Kevelaer a place of pilgrimage. The image of the Virgin Mary in Kevelaer repeatedly showed its miraculous power, and the rumor about the healings and the assistance provided quickly spread throughout Germany.
The number of pilgrims increased every year. Many made their way to Kevelaer on foot, alone or in groups. In 1699, about four hundred believers took part in such a pilgrimage from Bonn, located 140 kilometers away, who went all the way in a festive procession.
During the French occupation of the Rhinelands after 1802 and secularization, the new revolutionary authorities banned the pilgrimage. By this time, the number of believers who came to Kevelaer on some days (!) exceeded 15 thousand people.
In 1842, the 200th anniversary was celebrated in Kevelaer. This year, more than 250 festive processions took place here, and the total number of pilgrims reached 200 thousand. In 1863, a railway line was laid here and a station was opened. In 1913, the number of pilgrims exceeded 600,000.
The place of pilgrimage is the German city of Kevelaer. Photos
Pilgrimage chapel in Kevelaer, which houses the miraculous image of the Virgin Photo: Rupert Oberhäuser/imageBROKER/picture alliance The altar inside the pilgrimage chapelPhoto: Rico Mark Rüde/imageBROKER/picture alliance Participants of the festive prayer near the pilgrimage chapelPhoto: Fabian Strauch/dpa/picture alliance Pilgrimage church – basilica Virgin Mary (Marienbasilika) in Kevelare. Built in neo-Gothic style between 1858-1864Photo: S. Ziese/blickwinkel/picture alliance Shrine of the Virgin Mary and the Confessional Chapel (Beichtkapelle) built between 1857-1858, on an old postcard from KevelaerPhoto: Arkivi/akpool GmbH/picture alliance Altar in the Candle Chapel (Kerzenkapelle) – the oldest pilgrimage temple of Kevelaer. The chapel was erected during the Thirty Years’ War in 1643-1645 Photo: Rupert Oberhäuser/picture alliance Pope John Paul II during a service in Kevelaer on May 2, 1987 Photo: T. Imo/photothek/picture alliance In 2017 on the occasion of the 375th anniversary of the pilgrimage in Kevelaer, the miraculous image of the Madonna and Child was carried through the streets of the city. Usually such processions take place here once every 50 yearsPhoto: Henning Kaiser/dpa/picture alliance During the annual motorcyclist pilgrimage to KevelaerPhoto: Christoph Reichwein/dpa/picture alliance
Christianity and Hinduism
Tamil Pilgrimage Day in Kevelare is one of the most colorful and lively of the year. As we have already noted, there are not only Catholics among the Tamil pilgrims. About a third are adherents of Hinduism, who also revere the divine essence of the Virgin Mary. The cult of the Virgin Mary is widespread in Sri Lanka and has a long tradition. The most important place of pilgrimage for Tamils on the island itself is the city of Madhu. The second most important is now the German Kevelar.
Orthodox chapel in Kevelare
There is also an Orthodox chapel of Saint John in Kevelare (Johanneskapelle), specially erected and consecrated in the early 1990s. The idea was born after a conversation that happened between the local rector – a priest in charge of receiving pilgrims, and an Orthodox Greek. This believer donated a gold medallion for the chapel in gratitude for the heard prayers. The rector asked why an Orthodox Christian decided to make such a generous gift to a Catholic shrine?
“The Mother of God is the same for everyone: for both Catholics and Orthodox,” he replied. Soon after that, in Kevelare, they began to discuss how and where it would be possible to equip a church for representatives of the Orthodox confessions.
Among the icons donated to this temple is, in particular, the image of Procopius of Ustyug (Procopius of Lubeck), a blessed miracle worker, revered by the Russian Orthodox Church.
This Hanseatic merchant, who died in 1303, was a representative of a noble family from German Lübeck. As follows from the biography of the saint, in 1243 he arrived at the office-branch of the Hanseatic League in Veliky Novgorod – “Peterhof”.
In Veliky Novgorod, the young man was greatly impressed by what he saw in churches and monasteries, after which he converted to Orthodoxy, distributed all his goods and other property to the poor, and also made a donation to a newly founded monastery. In 1547, Procopius of Ustyug became the first saint in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church to be glorified as a holy fool.
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