About the power of the saint’s healing

Situated at one of the busiest roads in the city is St Anthony’s Shrine in Mettuguda that has people of different faiths coming together in one belief - healing.

It is dedicated to St Anthony, also known as the saint for lost things. Apart from the hope of healing there are other beliefs surrounding this church that has rendered it a pilgrimage spot of sorts.

The place is filled to its maximum capacity especially on Tuesdays.

It is believed that people visit the church with a particular intention for five Tuesdays consecutively and the Saint intercedes for the intention dearly.

It was fifteen Tamil families that installed the miraculous statue of St Anthony and celebrated a novena in his honour at Modi's Compound, Mettuguda.

In 1950, the Bhajan Society shifted to Modi's Compound with the help of MK Modie and WS Roberts. A nominal monthly rent of Rs10 was paid to Modie by the Society.

Since many people started flocking to the shrine, Fr Joseph D'Souza purchased the land from Modie in 1954 and registered it in the name of the Bhajan Society of which the parish priest of Lallaguda was the Spiritual Director.

In the same year, a primary school was started, but due to insufficient place, it was shifted to the Sacred Heart Church premises.

Over a period of time, thousands of people of different religions were visiting this shrine and receiving abundant blessings.

Hence, the Parish Priest of Lallaguda intended to construct a church in a suitable place.

Meanwhile Clara Peters, a well-wisher, then residing in Australia, donated her land to Fr Yeruva Bali, the parish priest of Sacred Heart Church, to build a church in honour of St Anthony.

Later, Fr Bali was transferred and Fr Bandanadam Julian took over the parish in 1972.

On August 23 1975, the statue of St Anthony was shifted to the new church and on the next day Archbishop Samineni Arulappa blessed it.

Mettuguda was erected as an independent parish on August 24 1977 with Fr Pancras Fernando as its parish priest.

The credit for the exponential growth of the devotion of St Anthony goes to AD Anthony, catechist of the shrine since 1942.

Even in the absence of the priest for all these years, he single-handedly conducted all the devotions and novenas, spiritually and meaningfully.

The church till today remains to be a shelter of prayer for the people of any religion. Bread that is blessed by the priest is distributed to the crowd that gathers for the services.

Many people come forward to donate loafs of bread to be distributed at the church.

Owing to this many beggars find their spots by the compound of the church to get themselves their food for the day.