By Stephan Uttom Rozario
Uncertainty has gripped Bangladesh’s most popular Catholic pilgrimage as church leaders hesitate to hold the annual feast of St. Anthony of Padua amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The St. Anthony of Padua shrine in Panjora village of Gazipur district in the Archdiocese of Dhaka holds the pilgrimage in the first week of February each year, attracting up to 50,000 people in the largest annual Christian gathering in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
The feast of the miraculous Portuguese saint falls on June 13 but in Panjora it is celebrated during February’s favorable weather to encourage pilgrims.
However, the fate of this year’s pilgrimage still hangs in the balance, while rumors have spread the feast will be suspended altogether.
100 years of migration, faith and culture in northern Bangladesh
Seeking to escape poverty, Catholics left Bhawal and forged a stronghold in the north
A memorial cross at St. Rita’s Church in Mothurapur of Pabna district marks the 100th year of migration of Bengali Catholics from central to northern Bangladesh. (Photo: Stephan Uttom/UCA News)
From a humble beginning, migrant Bengali Catholics in northern Bangladesh have thrived in a new bastion of Christianity with their faith defying socioeconomic adversity.
About a century ago, many Bengali Catholics from Bhawal, one of Bangladesh’s largest and oldest Catholic strongholds covered by Dhaka Archdiocese, migrated to Pabna and Natore districts to escape poverty and seek economic prosperity.