About & History

The Church of Our Lady of Light — affectionately called Luz Church — stands in the Mylapore region of Chennai as one of the oldest churches in India. Built by the Portuguese in 1516, it predates almost every European structure in the country. Its name comes from the Portuguese Nossa Senhora da Luz, Our Lady of Light.

Tradition holds that Portuguese sailors, caught in a violent storm off the Coromandel Coast, prayed to the Blessed Mother and were guided ashore by a light that moved before them. It came to rest in a forest clearing — and there they raised this shrine. For centuries locals knew it as Kattu Koil, the forest shrine. Today the surrounding neighbourhood itself is named Luz, after the church.

Five centuries of light

1. 1516

   Portuguese sailors caught in a storm follow a mysterious light to the Mylapore shore. Where the light rests, they build a chapel to Nossa Senhora da Luz — Our Lady of Light.

2. 1500s

   Locals call the shrine 'Kattu Koil' — the forest shrine — for the woods that then surrounded it. It becomes a landmark for sailors approaching the Coromandel Coast.

3. 1600s–1700s

   The shrine grows with the Portuguese settlement of São Tomé de Meliapore, serving generations of the faithful through the colonial era.

4. 1800s

   Luz Church gives its name to the neighbourhood around it — Luz — as Mylapore grows into the heart of Madras.

5. 2016

   The shrine celebrates 500 years of unbroken worship — one of the oldest European monuments in India, and still a living parish.