Kalwari Sharing Hiniduma
Just
beyond 49 kilometers from the city of Galle,towards
the interior of Sri Lanka,
surrounded by a chain of mountains along with the highest mountain in the
Southern Province, Mt.Haycock- lies Hiniduma Pattuwa. Hiniduma means the
village with”light mist”. The Gin Ganga which flows between these gigantic
hills has imbibed life into the lush vegetion of Hiniduma. So much so the
picturesque Hiniduma has become rich in her cinnamon, tea and rubber
cultivations. As, Christians, Hiniduma makes us proud for her longstanding,
unshaken and deep faith in Jesus and His teachings. It could be called a Faith
Heritage. Today thousands and thousands of pilgrims rally round Hiniduma during
Lent to make their faith a reality in making the way of cross on “the Calvary Mountain” in Hiniduma.
One
day in the Holy Week of 1948, just before Good Friday there was a major out
burst of bush fire in the mountain just opposite the Hiniduma Church.
That particular land happened to be a
part of the church property too. It had been purchased by His Lordship, Most
Rev. Dr. Van Reeth, the Bisho of Galle, in all 18 acres. Rev. Fr. Cyril
Edirisinghe, the Parish Priest, kept awake throughout the whole night just
gazing at the mountain on fire. The next day, early in the morning Fr. Edirisinghe
look at the mountain with great sorrow. Oh! The mountain was completely burnt
out. The lush green vegetation turned into blackish remnants, but he happened
to notice a half burnt tree in the shape of a cross right on the top of the
mountain. An idea stuck him, “What a sight for a Calvary!”
That dream became a reality when he kept his first step to the mountain with
some of his parishioners. They climbed the hill for the first time. That
climbing was not just a journey but for them it was a spiritual journey and a
biblical journey. The Holy Scripture became alive and Fr Cyril and the
parishioners were beginning to realize that they were re-living the experience
of Gethsemane, Kidron Valley and Mt.
Calvary-Golgotha. In
1948, Fr.Edirisinghe and the Parishioners made the first Way of the Cross on Good Friday on
the mountain along the raged ways to the top. They placed some wooden crosses
to mark the Stations of the Cross.
Fr.Edrisinghe’s
enthusiasm towards that Calvary experience
grew little by little like a flame. Later he managed to build cement crosses
instead of wooden ones. The encounter between Most Rev. Dr. Laudadio S.J, then
the Bishop of Galle and Fr. Cyril made Hiniduma a place of pilgrimage. Fr.
Cyril got hold of Mr. Somadasa a genius Buddhist sculpture to carve life size
statues of the station of the cross. Up to date these stations depict the
enthusiasm of good Fr. Cyril and the competence of Mr. Somadasa. May they rest
in peace.
In
1958, Hiniduma was declared and blessed as a Diocesan Shrine. Rev.Fr. Stephen
was the pioneer in building the pilgrim rests. From then onwards all most all
the administrators shed their sweat in making Hiniduma a place of experience of
faith and revival of spirit.
In
1994 Calvary Shrine was blessed with a concrete bridge across the Gin Ganga.
Earlier it was a very difficult task to cross the Gin Ganga to reach the bottom
of the Calvary mountain. Every year people had
to have a temporary bridge across the river made out of logs. Most of the times
that bridge was washed away with annual floods that made the situation worse.
Thanks to the untiring efforts of Most.Rev.Dr. Don Sylvestor, the Bishop of
Galle and Rev. Fr. Bede de Silva, then the Adminstrator, a solid concrete
bridge came into existence.Yet it was washed off completely during the heavy
flood in 2003. The present bridge came into existence under the supervision of
Rev. Fr. Boniface Perera, then the Administrator.
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