Christian devotees gathered for Novena prayer at St. Mary's Basilica

2014-08-12 25

Devotees gather for the flag hoisting on the first day of 'Novena' at St Mary's Basilica in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

A novena is an institutional act of religious pious devotion in the Roman Catholic Church, often consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days in belief of obtaining special intercessory graces.

The prayers are often derived from devotional prayer books, or consist of the recitation of the rosary (a "rosary novena"), or of short prayers through the day. Novena prayers are customarily printed in small booklets, and the novena is often dedicated to a specific angel, saint, a specific Marian title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or it invokes one of the personages of the Holy Trinity.

Within the Roman Catholic discipline, novena prayers for public use must have an Imprimatur, Nihil Obstat, and Imprimi potest. These ecclesiastical sanctions are usually granted by a bishop or any ranking prelate for publication and approval.

St. Mary's Basilica is a basilica located in the Archdiocese of Bangalore in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the oldest church in Bangalore and is the only church in the state that has been elevated to the status of a minor basilica. It is famous for the festivities held during the St. Mary's Feast in the month of September each year, an event that attracts a number of devotees from in and around Bangalore.

Bangalore, officially known as Bengaluru is the capital city of the Indian state of Karnataka. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and fifth-most populous urban agglomeration. Bangalore is known as the "Silicon Valley of India" because of its role as the nation's leading information technology (IT) exporter. Located at a height of over 3,000 feet (914.4 m) above sea level, Bangalore is known for its pleasant climate throughout the year. The city is amongst the top ten preferred entrepreneurial locations in the world.

A succession of South Indian dynasties, the Western Gangas, the Cholas, and the Hoysalas ruled the present region of Bangalore until in 1537 CE, Kempé Gowdā — a feudatory ruler under the Vijayanagara Empire — established a mud fort considered to be the foundation of modern Bangalore. Following transitory occupation by the Marāthās and Mughals, the city remained under the Mysore Kingdom. It later passed into the hands of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, and was captured by the British after victory in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799), who returned administrative control of the city to the Maharaja of Mysore. The old city developed in the dominions of the Maharaja of Mysore, and was made capital of the Princely State of Mysore, which existed as a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj. In 1809, the British shifted their cantonment to Bangalore, outside the old city, and a town grew up around it, which was governed as part of British India. Following India's independence in 1947, Bangalore became the capital of Mysore State, and remained capital when the new Indian state of Karnataka was formed in 1956. The two urban settlements of Bangalore -- city and cantonment -- which had developed as independent entities merged into a single urban centre in 1949. The exiting Kannada name Bengalūru was declared as official name of the city in 2006.

Source : Wikipedia

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