PilgrimstaysThe Ulhatu Basilica Jharkhand, situated 17 kms from the state capital of Ranchi, is the first Marian Shrine in the Chotanagpur region. Officially called the Basilica of the Divine Motherhood of Our Lady, it has its roots in the missionary work of Fr Constant Lievens. Fr Lievens, was a Jesuit from Belgium who was sent to the Chotanagpur region in 1885. Chotanagpur is a largely tribal area that comprises the present day Indian states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Fr Lievens chose Torpa, a village about 60 kms from Ranchi, as his base and made a small hut his home. It was from here that Fr Lievens was able to study the language and customs of the Munda people, who are the predominant ethnic group. Fr Lievens, who is regarded as the Apostle of Chotanagpur, was dismayed to discover the appalling social conditions prevalent. The indigenous tribes were subject to the worst kind of exploitation in the form of acute indebtedness, the resultant forced labour and systematic land spoliation. Unless the Mundas were granted their basic rights and human dignity, spreading the word of Christ and of the Gospels would serve little purpose. It was with this understanding that Fr Lievens, started learning the intricacies of the unwritten tribal customary law. Armed with this knowledge, Fr Lievens started taking up their cases in the local courts. By the strength of his reasoned arguments, Fr Lievens was able to convince the English magistrates of the justness of his cause. Repeated successes in his efforts, won Fr Lievens the hearts of the Munda people, who saw in him a Saviour, following which they started accepting Christ as their master. The number of tribals who voluntarily asked for and received baptism was astounding. During his missionary work which lasted less than seven years, Fr Lievens who began with 56 Catholics was able to leave behind over 80,000 baptised Catholics when he died in 1893.He was sent back to Belgium to recuperate from the tuberculosis that had afflicted him. His ashes were brought back to India in 1993, a hundred years after his death and are interred at the St Mary’s Cathedral in Ranchi. What is the Ulhatu Basilica, Jharkhand today, started out as a small church in the remote village of Kawali. It was succeeded by a small chapel in 1907. The chapel was shifted in 1948 to Bhuthataur. By the year 1953, the church was formally established at Ulhatu, which at that time still was a part of the Ranchi Cathedral. The shrine is adorned by the statue of Our Lady of Halle with the child Jesus. The missionary vocation of Fr Lievens is rooted in his devotion to Our Lady of Halle, a town in his native Belgium. As the number of pilgrims began to increase, a new shrine was blessed and inaugurated in November 1995. In recognition of its enormous spiritual fecundity, the Shrine was accorded the title of Minor Basilica through a Decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments issued on 30 November 2004.
The Ulhatu Basilica Jharkhand, situated 17 kms from the state capital of Ranchi, is the first Marian Shrine in the Chotanagpur region
Fr Lievens, who is regarded as the Apostle of Chotanagpur, was dismayed to discover the appalling social conditions prevalent
By the year 1953, the church was formally established at Ulhatu, which at that time still was a part of the Ranchi Cathedral
The shrine is adorned by the statue of Our Lady of Halle with the child Jesus
As the number of pilgrims began to increase, a new shrine was blessed and inaugurated in November 1995
The basilica is set in the characteristic landscape of Jharkhand — forested hills, laterite soil, and small tribal villages. The church rising above the surrounding forest and fields is the visual expression of the Catholic presence in this tribal landscape — a presence that has been here for over 150 years.
The Mass celebrated here reflects the inculturation of Catholic worship into Adivasi culture — tribal music, dance, and artistic elements are incorporated into the liturgy, particularly on feast days. This inculturation, encouraged by the Church since Vatican II, makes Jharkhand's Catholic worship one of the most culturally distinctive in India.
The shrine of the Divine Motherhood — Our Lady with the Christ child, in the theological tradition of the Theotokos — is the devotional centre. The Mary venerated here is a mother-figure particularly resonant with Adivasi communities where communal and family bonds are the primary social structure.
The surrounding villages are home to Catholic Adivasi families whose faith was first planted by Jesuit missionaries in the 1870s and has persisted for five generations. The community life around the basilica — the schools, health centres, and cooperative farms maintained by the Church — is part of the total pilgrim experience.
Jharkhand means Land of Forests, and the forested hills around the basilica area are part of the sacred geography of the tribal communities. The natural environment — birds, trees, the quality of light in the forest — has a spiritual dimension for Adivasi Catholics that is inseparable from their faith.
At the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, the assembled bishops defined Mary as Theotokos — God-bearer, Mother of God. The theological argument was about the nature of Christ: if Jesus is fully divine, then the one who bore him is the Mother of God. This title, which seems so exalted, is rooted in the most intimate claim of Christian theology: that God was born of a woman, that God was nursed, that God was held. The Adivasi Catholics of Jharkhand, who know what it is to hold children in uncertain times, understand this title from the inside.
“But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
Read in full on Bible Gateway →The Ulhatu Basilica, Jharkhand, situated 17 km from the state capital of Ranchi, is the first Marian shrine in the Chotanagpur region. Officially called the Basilica of the Divine Motherhood of Our Lady, it has its roots in the missionary work of Fr Constant Lievens.
Fr Lievens was a Jesuit from Belgium who was sent to the Chotanagpur region in 1885. Chotanagpur is a largely tribal area that comprises the present-day Indian states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Fr Lievens chose Torpa, a village about 60 km from Ranchi, as his base and made a small hut his home. It was from here that he was able to study the language and customs of the Munda people, who are the predominant ethnic group.
Fr Lievens, who is regarded as the Apostle of Chotanagpur, was dismayed to discover the appalling social conditions prevalent. The indigenous tribes were subject to the worst kind of exploitation in the form of acute indebtedness, the resultant forced labour and systematic land spoliation. Unless the Mundas were granted their basic rights and human dignity, spreading the word of Christ and of the Gospels would serve little purpose.
It was with this understanding that Fr Lievens started learning the intricacies of the unwritten tribal customary law. Armed with this knowledge, he started taking up their cases in the local courts. By the strength of his reasoned arguments, Fr Lievens was able to convince the English magistrates of the justness of his cause. Repeated successes in his efforts won him the hearts of the Munda people, who saw in him a saviour, following which they started accepting Christ as their master.
The number of tribals who voluntarily asked for and received baptism was astounding. During his missionary work, which lasted less than seven years, Fr Lievens, who began with 56 Catholics, was able to leave behind over 80,000 baptised Catholics when he died in 1893. He had been sent back to Belgium to recuperate from the tuberculosis that had afflicted him. His ashes were brought back to India in 1993, a hundred years after his death, and are interred at St Mary’s Cathedral in Ranchi.
What is the Ulhatu Basilica today started out as a small church in the remote village of Kawali. It was succeeded by a small chapel in 1907. The chapel was shifted in 1948 to Bhuthataur. By the year 1953, the church was formally established at Ulhatu, which at that time still was a part of the Ranchi Cathedral. The shrine is adorned by the statue of Our Lady of Halle with the child Jesus. The missionary vocation of Fr Lievens is rooted in his devotion to Our Lady of Halle, a town in his native Belgium.
As the number of pilgrims began to increase, a new shrine was blessed and inaugurated in November 1995. In recognition of its enormous spiritual fecundity, the shrine was accorded the title of Minor Basilica through a Decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, issued on 30 November 2004.
