Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine, Villianur

Villianur's Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, about 13 km from Pondicherry, is a Catholic Marian shrine and parish church. Missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society began a chapel here in 1867, which took ten years to finish, and Father Alphonse Marie de Tarbes, a cousin of St Bernadette of Lourdes, became parish priest. It is described as the first church named after Our Lady of Lourdes outside France. A statue brought from Lourdes was installed in 1877 and, after reports of miracles, Pope Leo XIII decreed its coronation, which the Archbishop of Pondicherry performed on 8 May 1886 before some 40,000 people.

In front of the church lies a walled pond with a statue of Mary at its centre, installed in 1924; devotees believe its water heals, and holy water from Lourdes is poured into it on the first Saturday of August. The annual feast follows Easter with a novena and car procession, and each October pilgrims walk about 12 km from Pondicherry's cathedral.