Colombo: The annual feast of St Anthony, celebrated over two days in the isolated island of Kachchatheevu and attended by devotees from Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu, concluded Sunday.
Kachchatheevu lies in the Palk Strait dividing the two South Asian nations. The feast was organized and managed by the Sri Lanka Army, reported ceylontoday.lk.
Around 7,600 pilgrims participated in the feast this year. The religious services were conducted by nearly 100 priests from southern India India with several Sri Lankan priests also participating. Fr Justin Gnanapragasam represented Bishop Thomas Saundaranayagam of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
As part of the sermons preached, General Secretary of the South Asian Fishermen’s Fraternity Rev Fr Churchill Baas said that the Tamil Nadu fishermen had received a religious blessing before they undertook the voyage.
The Naval Commander for the North, Rear Admiral Sarath Dissanayake told the media that the number of devotees who participated in the pilgrimage this year had increased. In 2009, following the end of the war 5,300 people had come to celebrate the feast.
Among the participants, 3,900 came from Tamil Nadu and 3,700 from Sri Lanka, he said. Around 110 Indian boats had brought in the Indian devotees.
Rear Admiral Dissanayake said that the Indian government had provided aid for the people of Tamil Nadu to go on the pilgrimage to Kachchatheevu. The Sri Lankan Navy had provided government assisted transport services for the Sri Lankans.
Katchatheevu, an uninhabited island administered by Sri Lanka, originated from a volcanic eruption in the 14th century. In 1974, India recognized Sri Lankan ownership of the island on a conditional agreement. Its Catholic shrine, built by a Catholic businessman in Tamil Nadu, was declared a sacred area by the Sri Lankan government.