St Mary’s, Negombo, one of Sri Lanka’s oldest churches

The golden angels surmounting the landmark St Mary’s Church in Main Street can easily be seen from a distance.

The Church is the oldest and largest of not only the many Catholic Churches in Negombo, but also in the whole of Sri Lanka.

Originally established by the Portuguese in 1603, the present building is the 5th, and was built between 1874 and 1922.

The colonnaded Neoclassical façade is now painted pale blue & cream. The interior has long spacious aisles each side tiled with black & white marble tiles. Along the aisles are 14 plinths with alabaster statues of saints adorning them.

Buddhist artist

A local Buddhist artist, N S Godamanne, was commissioned to do the ceiling murals depicting the life of Christ, the miracle of the ‘feeding of the 5,000’ being the most impressive.

The magnificent altar is rumoured to have been brought originally from Europe. Be sure to also spend some time admiring the beautiful stained glass windows.

Another striking feature is the confessional stall, which is hand carved in wood. Towards the back of the church there is a black and white staircase, and tqo large ropes for the ringing of the church bells.

Fr Vistarini

At the entrance of the church there is a life-size marble statue of Fr Vistarini, mounted on a pedestal. He was an Italian priest who devoted 38 years of his life to this church.

He came here in November 1857, and was instrumental in upgrading St Mary’s and founding St. Mary’s College, which still functions today.

On Sundays there is a Mass at 5am in Tamil, 7.30am in English and 9am in Sinhala, a reflection of the multilingual population of Negombo.

On the first Sunday after the 8th September each year, the Church’s grand festival celebration in honour of Our Lady attracts worshipers from all over the island.