Dear Friend of St Lawrence,

Greetings to you from St. Lawrence Shrine, Attur. It gives me great pleasure and joy to welcome you to this site.

St. Lawrence Shrine is a Mangalore Diocesan Shrine. It has become very popular for nearly three centuries now. The greatness of this Shrine is that this is popular among people of all religions. If you are familiar with the other Shrines all over the world, thousands of them, they are the fountains of special grace which our Heavenly Father makes use to shower his choicest blessings on those who believe in his Divine Providence. St. Lawrence, like the other Saints, was a special friend of Christ. He tried his best to follow the teachings of Christ and walk in his footsteps. “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me”. These words of Christ were familiar to St. Lawrence, and he lived accordingly. The Mother Church has honoured him, as a Saint right from the third century. He has been interceding on behalf of those who seek his assistance ever since.

Every day we have devotees, a number of them, who are in difficulties of life, visit this shrine. Those who received special graces through his intercession, come here to express their gratitude. Some of them come because they had the gift of a child after several years of their marriage. Others visit because they found a miraculous healing. Some others come over because they found a job after many years of waiting. Yet others visit this shrine because they regained their mental health, after visiting many doctors without much benefit.

It is heartening to note that our Heavenly father continues to be merciful to all. One of the special gifts the Catholics receive here is the forgiveness of sins. This shrine is famous right form its inception, for the sacrament of confession. Many a sinner comes over here to receive the sacrament of Confession and thereby change his or her life. Mind you, during the Annual Feast of St. Lawrence in the month of January, every year around 150 priests in all are available for the sacrament of Confession, round the clock. Thousands of Catholics come over here to change their lives and make a firm determination to live a better Christian life. This we should admit is the greatest of Miracles, namely sinners getting converted after several years hardened life altogether.

For your information the Annual Feast of St. Lawrence is celebrated at Attur every year on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the month of January, starting from the last Thursday of the month. Prior to that we have nine days of preparation.

Moreover the Feast of St. Lawrence is celebrated on 10^th of August too when the universal Church celebrates it as per the liturgical calendar. We also prepare for this feast with 9 days of Novena.

Every Thursday we have the special prayers with the pilgrims around 10.00 a. m. Then the mass with the homily starts at 11.00 a.m. Thereafter at the end we have the special prayer of St. Lawrence and prayer over the sick. We have here the relic of St. Lawrence and the pilgrims come in procession to kiss the same with devotion at the end of the Novena.

All the pilgrims then participate in the meal in our new dining hall inaugurated on the 1^st of November 2007. The Thursday’s meals are sponsored by the pilgrims.

We have launched this new web-site to give a brief history of this Shrine I believe that you will get a glimpse of this Holy Shrine.

May the wonder worker St Lawrence be dear you. May he lead you to Jesus our Master. May St Lawrence intercede for you.

Fr. Arthur Pereira

Director St Lawrence Shrine.

Attur - Karkala