Stone Cross
According to legend, in order to install a huge stone cross in the church, the devotees went to ask for help from an elephant owner who was staying in Puthupally some 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) distant. Since the elephant was resting and receiving treatment, the owner refused the request. The devotees returned in desperation and to their surprise saw the stone cross had been erected. It was properly installed and before the cross stood the elephant.
The traditional lamps lit around this cross by devotees are a peculiarity of the church. Devotees used to move around the cross on their knees after bathing in a pond. Psychiatric patients and chronically diseased patients praying beneath the cross for the restoration of their health is a common phenomena.
Read more about this topic: Manarcad Church
Famous quotes containing the words stone and/or cross:
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“It is an agreeable change to cross a lake, after you have been shut up in the woods, not only on account of the greater expanse of water, but also of sky. It is one of the surprises which Nature has in store for the traveler in the forest. To look down, in this case, over eighteen miles of water, was liberating and civilizing even.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)