Travellers' faith: Head to this Tiruvallur church to pray for a visa

CHENNAI: Located amid the green agricultural fields, surrounded by modest villages and far from the metropolis, is a small church – St Jude Shrine at Kattoor, Tiruvallur, which has drawn devotees from Chennai and beyond for one reason – visa sanction.

“When I was young, they used to tell me to pray here to get my visa sanctioned. Ever since I got my visa, I’ve recommended this church to many and seen it happen,” smiled Mini T Anthony.

Her account reflects the faith of many who travel to this shrine, carrying passports and application papers with them.

“My son, who struggled to get a job, found one after praying here.” “Right now, I am in New Zealand only because of St Jude.” “One of my family members is in Australia and another is in Germany, it happened only after praying here.” Several testimonials from believers poured in when asked.

The shrine’s roots date back to the 1960s. Father John Kottaram, then a parish priest, came to what was then an underdeveloped village without proper schools or hospitals. According to the residents, he started schools and hostels to provide education, gradually building up the local community.

Along with this, he also established a small church dedicated to St Jude, a patron saint of hopeless causes, in Catholism. Father Kottaram would later go on to find the congregation of the Sarah Missionary Sisters of Mary.

The shrine itself gets limited participation from nearby villages but attracts steady streams of believers from Chennai and beyond, largely with hopes of migrating abroad.

Sister Mercy, who now helps run the shrine, recalls that it was never planned as a ‘visa church’ but grew into that role through faith and word of mouth. “Many people come here in tears, asking for visas. In a week or two, they return for thanksgiving,” she said. “It is only because of faith. Not only visas, all kinds of intentions are prayed for.”

In the early days, city visitors, including Anglo-Indian families who often aspired to move abroad, would come regularly to pray at St Jude’s and make donations. With their contributions, the church was expanded from a small structure built in 1960 into the building that stands today, later renovated into its current form.

Over time, the reputation grew that petitions made here especially those linked to migration would be heard.

Much like this Christian shrine, Chennai has another well-known place of prayer for visas in the form of the Sri Lakshmi Visa Ganapathy Temple at Pazhavanthangal, popularly called Visa Vinayagar. Here too, devotees line up with documents and applications, seeking divine help for foreign travel.

That a church in a Tiruvallur village and a temple in the city both carved a niche of its own where the hope of going abroad has become inseparable from the act of worship.