By Purushottam Nayak
Berhampur: The Coronavirus pandemic has affected one of the important Christian celebrations in Odisha, eastern India.
The Odisha Church on November 27 celebrates the feast of Mary Queen of the Mission in Berhampur, some 179 km southwest of Bhubaneswar, the state capital. The annual feast usually attracts thousands of people from many states in India.
Bondar Siddheswar Baliram, Commissioner of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation, has told the Church leaders that they can have ritual performance on thie feast day with the limited ten believers according to Covid-19 guidelines.
Father Sanjeeb Kumar Nayak, parish priest of the Queen of the Mission Cathedral Parish and vicar general of the diocese of Berhampur, says they have decided not to have public celebrations this year as it was difficult to follow the Covid-19 guidelines during the feast.
However, they plan to reach out to people through YouTube and social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur will lead the feast day services on the feast day, with ten members of priests, religious, and laity, Father Nayak said.
“We thank God for giving us Mother Mary as our help and mediator for the humanity to intercede in this time of coronavirus to her Son,” Father Nayak told Matters India November 26.
Father Nayak said the main attraction of the feast was the candle procession that draws people from all religions in the silk city.
“Hindus, Muslims and Christians of various denominations experience peace, harmony, unity and fraternity through Mother Mary during the candle feast. They will miss it this year,” the vicar general explained.
He said devotees used to come from neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana and West Bengal. People also come from faraway Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, Father Nayak claimed.
Promila Behera, 40, one of the devotees from the cathedral parish, expressed sadness to miss the “experience of Mother Mary passing through my house during candle procession.”
She said he has “great devotion, respect and trust in Mother Mary. She will intercede with her Son to grant abundant graces and favors to heal the sick and those suffering from the coronavirus pandemic.”
The priests of the diocese conducted nine days of spiritual exercises such as recitation of the rosary, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction and Eucharist focusing on the role of Mary in the salvation of humanity. The program ended on November 25.
St Catherine Laboure
Founder of the devotion of the Miraculous Medal. St Catherine came from a large farming family near Dijon in France. Born in 1806, she looked after her widowed father and later worked as a waitress in her uncle’s cafe in Paris, before joining the Sisters of Charity at the age of 14.
She lived in the community in Reuilly, caring for the elderly in a rest home and tending chickens. Her superiors wrote that she was a ‘quiet and dull’ person. Until her last years, few people realized that she led an extraordinary inner life.
Through a series of dreams and visions, she accurately foresaw many historical events in France. In one dream she saw a picture of Mary standing on a globe with shafts of light coming from her hands with the inscription underneath reading: ‘Mary conceived without sin pray for us who have recourse to thee.’ On the reverse side was a capital M with the cross above and two hearts below.
Catherine believed she was ordered to have this produced as a medal. She spoke with her superiors and, in 1832, the archbishop allowed 1,500 to be minted. Later an account of the medal’s origins was published. A canonical review in 1836 declared them authentic.
In 1842 a Jewish man from Alsace, Alphonsus Ratisbone, inspired by the devotion to the medal, became a Christian and founded the Fathers and Sisters of Sion. From that time onward, the devotion to the Miraculous Medal spread around the world.
Catherine died on December 31, 1876. Her body remains incorrupt in the convent chapel at Rue de Bac, Paris. She was canonized in 1947.