“Lift up thine eyes round about thee and see; all these are gathered together; they are come to thee; thy sons shall come from after and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side”. In these words the prophet Isaias describes the vision splendid of the Universal Church. These words suggest themselves too to our minds when we see the immense concourse of people gathered annually from the four corners of Sri Lanka at the feet of Our Lady of Madhu. They come in their thousands and tens of thousands to this sacred spot, because it has long been the centre of Marian devotion in the Island and because it has been the nursery of our faith in times of persecution.