Sri Lankan Catholics Celebrate Feast of St Anthony at Colombo Church attacked on 21 Apr

Sri Lankan Catholics Celebrate Feast of St Anthony at Colombo Church attacked on 21 Apr

Colombo : The April 21 attacks this year, claimed by militant group Islamic State, targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, shocking the country and shattering a decade of relative peace after the end of a 25-year civil war. But on 14 June Sri Lankan Catholics celebrated Saint Anthony’s feast inside this bombed church, resuming worship at St. Anthony’s Shrine after Easter attacks by Islamist militants killed more than 250 people on the island.

Hundreds of worshippers, including survivors and relatives of the victims, gathered at the shrine in the capital, Colombo, for the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, called for peace on the multi-ethnic island that has also been shaken by anti-Muslim riots carried out in retribution for the bombings. “Do not make this land become a land of blood,” Ranjith said in his sermon at the restored white-painted church.

A mass was also held on Wednesday evening for the first time since the church was reconsecrated. Authorities say the threat of more Islamist militant attacks has been contained and security services have dismantled most of the network linked to the Easter Sunday bombings. An old Catholic church, St. Anthony’s shrine, located in Colombo’s busiest market place, has for years been hugely popular among worshipers from different faiths, including Hindus and Muslims. For people of the area, the attacks were not only shocking, but also difficult to comprehend. People of all religions live here and have been trading with each other for years.

Even legends around the shrine, which celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2010, reflect diverse influences, including from India. When the Dutch arrived in Sri Lanka in the 17th century, Catholicism, which their predecessor coloniser — the Portuguese — spread, came under serious threat, according to popular narratives. A priest by name Fr. Anthonio, from Cochin, is believed to have arrived here at that time, disguised as a merchant. Helping locals, mainly the fisher community, he is said to have received wide support and drawn more people towards Catholicism. Those attached to the church believe that it was his Cochin-trader image that possibly inspired the locality’s name, Kochchikade.

With inputs from The Guardian