Case file · Apparition / miracle
Our Lady of Velankanni
A shrine on India's Tamil Nadu coast whose devotion, dating to the mid-16th century, rests on three miracle stories: an apparition to a shepherd boy, a healed buttermilk seller and Portuguese sailors saved from a storm.
1550 CE · 10.68, 79.85 · status: legend
The account
The grateful Portuguese are said to have built the first chapel after washing ashore. Now a basilica, it draws nearly 5 million pilgrims each year.
The sceptical view
These are local traditions recorded long after the events.