St Anthony’s Basilica, Dornahalli

St Anthony’s Basilica, popularly known as Dornahalli church, is situated about 43 km away from Mysore. St Anthony of Padua, to whom this Basilica is dedicated, was born Fernando Martins in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1195 AD.

St Anthony of Padua

He joined the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, the then capital of Portugal, where he studied for the priesthood. When Franciscan friars settled in a small hermitage outside Coimbra dedicated to St Anthony of Egypt, Fernando felt a longing to join them. Upon receiving permission to leave the Abbey and join the new Franciscan order, Fernando Martins changed his name to Anthony.

The Legend

The beginnings of the basilica date back over two hundred years, to a time when a farmer at Dornahalli in Mysore stumbled across a wooden idol while ploughing his field. Thinking nothing more about it, he gave the statue to his children to be used as a toy. Legend has it that a man dressed in a similar costume to that of the statue appeared to him in a dream. He was informed that what he had found in his fields was a statue of St Anthony of Padua, and was instructed to have it placed in a sacred spot.

Again he did nothing about it, following which a series of mishaps befell him and his family. Finally, acting on the advice of a priest who realised that the statue was of the saint, the farmer built a house of prayer. That small shrine eventually grew to be the present-day Basilica at Dornahalli.

Pilgrimage

Today Dornahalli church is frequented by pilgrims from different parts of the region. St Anthony is considered to be the patron of lost things. Many of the faithful who visit the shrine pray that articles they have lost be restored to them, and invariably they find their prayers answered and belongings restored. Such is the faith in St Anthony that those with seemingly impossible causes come here to pray to the saint and find their wishes granted.