Church legend claims that a large wooden crate was hauled out of the sea by Weligama fishermen.
], during a cholera epidemic which claimed hundreds of lives, Catholics prayed before the statue to be delivered from the disease.
In the early 1900s, after over 300 years in the church of Matara, the statue looked faded and worn due to exposure and the thousands of devotees touching and kissing it.
When the renovations were complete, the statue was packed in a wooden crate and shipped in the cargo boat Beachy, which set sail from Antwerp.
Dr. Joseph Van Reeth, took possession of the statue and set sail to Matara in the steamer Princess Alice.
Three days later a Belgian cargo boat named the Uckermarck arrived in Colombo with the missing crate.