Lourdes: Tamil Community’s Miracle – L’Express

With her hands crossed in prayer, a Virgin Mary in an immaculate dress rubs shoulders with the golden reflections of a representation of the Hindu divinity Kubera, symbol of wealth and abundance. On the brand new counter of her new restaurant, Niveta has chosen to display, without distinction, these Catholic and Hindu religious figures who rocked her childhood. “My father believes very strongly in the Virgin. Even if she does not appear in the Hindu religion that our family practices, in our culture she represents motherhood, benevolence, serenity,” explains the restaurateur, a Sri Lankan from the Tamil community – mainly present in southern India and Sri Lanka. “It’s no coincidence that we decided to move here!” she comments, smiling. His establishment has just opened its doors on Boulevard de la Grotte, in the heart of Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), just a few hundred meters from the sanctuary where thousands of tourists and believers flock every day. Niveta knows the place well: after leaving Sri Lanka for Grenoble in 2011, she used to go there several times a year with her family on pilgrimage.

A year ago, the young woman decided to move permanently to the Marian city with her husband and her sister, who was deaf from birth. “In Grenoble, it was very complicated for her,” breathes Niveta. “Here, people are more understanding, more patient.” Lourdes is above all a family affair: her father, still in Grenoble, intends to join her for his retirement, and the move was facilitated by her husband’s uncle, also of Tamil origin, who has lived there for thirty years and owns two traditional restaurants. “We worked at his place this summer, we have to see how well it works! There is sometimes not enough room for everyone, people queue. There are all nationalities, but the clientele is mainly Tamil,” underlines Niveta, eager to see the high season begin, from April.

In the neighboring restaurant, Thevapalan, the famous uncle, agrees. The man settled in Lourdes in the 1990s after fleeing the civil war and the persecution suffered by his community in Sri Lanka. In three decades, he has seen the city change and adapt to the presence of ever-increasing Tamil pilgrims. “When I opened my first small restaurant, I was the only one to offer traditional dishes. Then the clientele continued to increase,” he reports. Competition has also increased. In this month of December, the city now has around ten Indo-Sri Lankan establishments, whose illuminated signs catch the eye of the rare passers-by. In the alleys lined with souvenir shops and narrow hotels, there are countless information panels and storefronts translated into Tamil. “In season, it works very well. There are large groups traveling from Sri Lanka, the Indian state of Kerala or Pondicherry,” lists the restaurateur. “Not to mention the Tamil diaspora established throughout Europe and the rest of the world, which converges in Lourdes to find themselves on pilgrimage since the 1980s-1990s, with an acceleration in the last ten years,” adds Laurent Ponzo, development director of the Lourdes Tourist Office.

Devotion for the Virgin

At the heart of the sanctuary, a man has been, for ten years, the privileged witness of this evolution. Father Linus Sosai, a Sri Lankan refugee, settled in Lourdes in 2015, at the request of the then bishop, Mgr Nicolas Brouwet. “At the time, the arrival of Tamil visitors was poorly organized. There were no signs in the Tamil language, no celebrations or confessions dedicated to this public, no translators. People wandered, without really knowing where to go,” remembers the chaplain, starting from nothing. However, there is no shortage of work: if the Tourist Office does not have official statistics specifically concerning the number of Tamil pilgrims who tread the cobblestones of the sanctuary each year, Father Linus mentions “between 3,000 and 4,000 daily visitors around August 15” [NDLR : la fête de l’Assomption]and “between 500 and 2,000 pilgrims” the rest of the weekends during the high season.

So much so that during the summer, the priest celebrates a daily mass in Tamil and organizes daily confessions dedicated to the community. In 2017, he even translated a prayer book into Tamil, prefaced by Mgr Xavier d’Arodes de Peyragues, former coordinator of the international pastoral ministry of the Lourdes sanctuary. “It is thus the first language of Asia which joins all the others to sing the praise of God and implore the help and protection of Our Lady”, commented the priest at the time.

Even in the middle of winter, when celebrations in Tamil are reduced to one or two masses during the weekend, Father Linus is very successful. “Just yesterday, I had 50 people at the cave, despite the cold!” he laughs. Its audience is not necessarily Christian: many Hindus also come to celebrate the Virgin, symbol of motherhood, fertility and unconditional love. “In our culture, we have a great devotion to mothers, in whom we see the presence of God. The Tamils ​​come here to seek peace and inner consolation,” explains the priest, who recalls the suffering experienced by his community during the civil war in Sri Lanka: “Here, they came to leave their worries, their anxiety. Many asked the Virgin for a better life.”

Stories of sudden healing or fertility, torch processions or the famous “water gesture” offered in the sanctuary’s pools are thus mentioned by most of the Tamil visitors interviewed in this mid-winter. “We are Hindus, but we believe in the strength of the Virgin. It’s a dream come true, this city soothes us,” confides Mitali, for example, who came from Australia with her family to immerse herself in the water coming from the springs of the cave, which the faithful consider sacred. Marked by this spiritual dimension that emerges from the city, Stanislas Robertson and his wife, who arrived in France from Sri Lanka in 2006, chose to settle there year-round. “There are around ten Tamil families living there. I came to be as close as possible to the sanctuary, but most moved in for work. The majority are Hindu, but still come to pray, or help voluntarily,” he says.

Jegatheeswary, a Catholic Sri Lankan, is part of this small local diaspora. This mother of three children arrived in Lourdes in 2020 with her Hindu husband, who now works in an Indian restaurant on Boulevard de la Grotte. From her small apartment, she recounts a precise daily life, divided between times of prayer, learning French and the education of her youngest daughters, educated in local establishments.

“Every day, after school, they practice Tamil,” emphasizes Jegatheeswary, very proud of her children’s bilingualism. The two little girls, who regularly help Father Linus during the high season, have even learned to sing theHail Mary in 22 languages. “Often, Tamil pilgrims are shocked to see that we speak both languages ​​so well, and very happy that we can guide them,” says Julia, 12, delighted to pray in her mother tongue in front of a captivated audience.