Chapel of Saint Francis Xavier
Religious Architecture
In an area some distance from Thoothukudi, in the village of Manapad, there is a small chapel dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier and the time he spent on the Pearl Fishery Coast in 1542 and 1543. On the heights of a promontory overlooking the horizon of the open sea, the whitewashed chapel stands directly over a grotto whose entrance is in the face of the cliff bathed by the sea. The place is redolent with spirituality, composed of biblical memories and Vedic myths. Of simple classic lines in its proportions and design, the body of the chapel has a frieze around its four walls, while the façade has a triangular frontispiece flanked by two pinnacles. The portal is surmounted by a small window, while the stone altar bears a simple cross.
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