Mangaluru : The feast in honour of the Relic of St Anthony will be celebrated on February 15 and the nine-day Novena, in preparation of the feast, begins on February 6.

The inauguration will be done by hoisting the flag of St Anthony’s Shrine at Our Lady of Miracles Church, Milagres. Rev Dr Ronald Serrao, the rector of the St Joseph Seminary, will hoist the flag and celebrate the inaugural mass at Milagres Church.

Before the flag is hoisted, a vehicle rally will be held, taking the decorated St Anthony’s statue in procession from the St Anthony Ashram, Jeppu to the Milagres Church via Kankanady Circle, Falnir Road.

Fr Onil D’Souza, director of St Anthony’s Ashram, said that the themes of the nine days of the Novena are designed on ‘Life a Gift of God – To be Nurtured and Protected’.

Special prayers will be offered for various groups of people on the nine days. The choir groups from nine different parishes will lead the singing on the nine days of the Novena.

The main Holy Mass will be celebrated by Most Rev Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Bishop Emeritus of Mangalore Diocese, at 6 pm on February 15 at Milagres Church ground.

A holy mass in Malayalam will be celebrated by Rev Fr Alexander Kalarikkal, professor at St Joseph Inter-Diocesan Seminary Jeppu at 4.30 pm at Milagres Church. For the sake of sick and elderly, a holy mass will be offered by Rev Fr Boniface Pinto, Professor St Joseph Seminary Jeppu at 8.15 am at Milagres Church.

Rev Fr Walter Mendonca, Parish Priest of St Anthony Church Sastan, Udupi, will offer holy mass at 11 am at Jeppu Ashram for the special invitees.

The tongue of St Anthony, who lived in the thirteenth century, is still fresh and kept at Padua in Italy where he did most of his pastoral ministry. St Anthony is revered all over the world and invoked especially to find lost articles.

On the eve of the feast, after the holy mass, a short play titled ‘Bair podellobhavarthpatiditha’(lost faith returned) will be played at Milagres Church grounds. This play of 15 minutes is written and directed by Vincent Fernandes.