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Photo focus: The crypts at Maggona
Life-size statues depicting the moments leading to Christ’s execution on the cross
During the period of ‘lent’ thousands of Christians flock to the ‘local Calvary’ at Maggona. Here the faithful follow the ‘Way of the Cross’ -Christ’s journey to Mount Calvary where he was crucified and died.
The premises is also home to St. Vincent’s Reformatory for juvenile offenders
What is lesser-known is the existence of crypts which contain the mortal remains of priests like Fr. Lapini, a French priest who served the institution and died in 1945. His remains and those of a number of his brother priests are buried in these crypts
Fr. Michael Silva, a priest knowledgeable in the history of the institute, said he had memories of the time when the crypt was not properly sealed, he and other seminarians had seen the body of Fr. Lapini and it was not decomposed.
When the news spread it began to attract crowds. The late Dr. Thomas Cardinal Cooray then Archbishop ordered the crypt closed and the grave sealed.
There was a tradition in the Church of yester-year to preserve the remains of those priests who served at the institute adjoining the main Church, awaiting resurrection as promised in scriptures of old.
The reformatory has been having the service of the French and Belgian missionaries whose bodies are buried in these crypts.
Though the site has a long history behind it is not very well known outside Maggona.
The crypts at Maggona are not very well-known to persons outside Maggona
The path Christians follow on the ‘Way of the Cross’
