Hallelujah! Holy relics of St Anthony come to Mettuguda!

At the crack of dawn, the

Mettuguda

main road was chock-a-block with traffic, as thousands of devotees queued up at the

St Anthony’s Shrine

, to get the first glimpse of the relics of the much-loved Portuguese saint. Though the relics were to be opened to public only post 7 am, the devout didn’t want to miss out on this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.
“This is the first time in the history of Catholicism in Hyderabad that such sacred relics have been shown here. I am blessed to have to seen this during my lifetime,” said

Father Chinappa Reddy

, Parish Priest of

St Anthony

’s Shrine.
The mortal remains of St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231 AD), which consist of the Saint’s tongue, bone, hair and skin, are originally housed at the

Basilica of Saint Anthony

in Padua, Italy. the relics, which first came to Bangladesh on February 9, 2017 before being brought to India, will be displayed in over 30 parishes in the states of Telangana, AP, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and taken back to Padua on March 15.
The Saint is hailed by Catholics worldwide as the ‘Miracle Worker’, so it’s no wonder that many like

Elizabeth Lewis

, a homemaker from

Nacharam

, felt that getting a glimpse of the Saint’s remains is a miracle in itself. “This is too amazing to be true. I still can’t believe this is happening so close to where we live! There was an official announcement a month ago about the display of the relics, but most of us didn’t believe it. I could hardly believe what I was seeing,” said a visibly-moved Elizabeth, who spoke to us after she kissed the statue of the saint.
the news of the relics coming to Hyderabad has been going viral on social media, said Marcell Balm, an IT professional. “In fact, I woke up this morning with my phone buzzing with this news. most of the chat groups on my phone were abuzz with conversations about St Anthony and and everyone was discussing about when to go to the shrine,” says Marcell.
In just a few hours, over 30,000 devotees had already thronged the Shrine, bringing traffic to a grinding halt. “The queues have spilled on to the main road and stretched over a kilometre,” says Roydin Roach, a parishioner who is part of the organising committee.
The relics were later taken to the St Mary’s Basilica in Secunderabad, where a high mass was held by Archbishop Thumma Bala. The relics were on display until midnight and devotees kept pouring in all through.