Catholicism came to China in missionary waves that left, as a most precious sediment, a Marian devotion rooted in each province. The theologian Pablo Cervera Barranco documented at least 14 Chinese Marian Advocations who enjoy official patronage, the majority born between the end of the 19th century and our days. These claims are the spiritual anchor of the 10 million Catholics living in mainland China, with the communities of Taiwan, Hong Kong and the world diaspora.

What makes Chinese Marian devotion unique is that it was born and matured in the midst of persecution. From the violence of the Boxers (1900) to the Cultural Revolution (1966- 1976), Chinese Catholics learned to pray the rosary in secret, to hide the images of the Virgin among the folds of the clothes or in the interior of books, and to pilgrim in the early morning to avoid surveillance. The Virgin was not just a sentimental devotion: it was the concrete refuge of a people who knew what the faith cost.

Shaanxi: Our Lady of China - the title of the nation

Although the title "Our Lady of China" has its immediate origin in the acts of Donglu (Hebei, 1900), its national dimension - which symbolically covers the whole nation, including Shaanxi - was consecrated in the Shanghai Council of 1924, first national episcopal Synod of China. The Apostolic Delegate, Cardinal Celso Costantini, accompanied by all Chinese bishops, solemnly consecrated the Chinese people under the protection of the Virgin Mary with the title "Queen of the Chinese People in Heaven." This act made Our Lady of China the title that crowns and embraces all other provincial Marian vocations.

The official image of Our Lady of China presents Mary with the touch and cloak of a Chinese imperial lady from the Qing dynasty, holding the Child Jesus in her arms. A revealing fact of its cultural origin: the image that served as a model was that of the empress widow Ci Xi, taken in a positive sense - the sovereign that takes care of its people - as a way of making divine motherhood intelligible within the Chinese cultural code. The image was blessed and promulgated by the Papa Pío XI en 1928who made the Donglu shrine the only official pilgrimage place in China.

En 1941, el Pope Pius XII established the liturgical feast of Our Lady of China. In 1973, the Chinese Episcopal Conference moved the celebration on the eve of Mother's Day (second Sunday of May) to link Marian devotion to the Chinese cultural sense of filial piety. In February 2021Pope Francis granted the canonical coronation of the venerated image at the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of China in Meishan, Taiwan, solemnly executed on August 14, 2022. It was the first pontifical coronation in the history of the Taiwanese Church.

The title has a history of resistance: during the Cultural Revolution, the original wooden statue was destroyed in Donglu along with the church. It only survived the wood peana shaped like dragon that represented the evil beat. In 1989, the faithful recreated a version in canvas. In 2000 - coinciding with the Jubilee and the canonization by John Paul II of 120 Chinese martyrs- more than 10,000 believers from all over China funded the new bronze statue that crowns the Sheshan Basilica today.

Hebei / Baoding: Our Lady of Donglu - the miracle of the Boxers

Hebei is the province with the highest concentration of Catholics in China, and Donglu is its Marian heart. The story begins in the spring of 1900, in the full rise of the Boxers. The small village of Donglu - founded by the Vincentian parents and composed of between 700 and 1,000 faithful - was besieged by an army of approximately 10,000 antichristian soldiers. The father of the community, the Chinese priest Wu, gathered all the faithful in the church and entrusted them to the Virgin Mary.

According to the testimony of the survivors and the attackers themselves, at the most critical moment of the siege he appeared in heaven. a woman dressed in whitesurrounded by light, accompanied by a fiery rider who the stories identify with the archangel Michael. The boxers shot at the image, but it remained intact. Prisoners of terror, the army fled without entering the village. The small Christian community was left safe and sound. The fact was investigated and the witnesses were questioned by both the Church and the military leaders of the attacking army themselves, who confirmed that they had seen something that prevented them from using the attack.

The devotion spread quickly throughout the province of Hebei. The annual pilgrimages to the Shrine of Donglu, held in May, came to gather hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. In May 1995, more than 100,000 faithful went to Donglu, and a solar phenomenon similar to that of Fatima was reported: the sun turned and emitted colors for several minutes. The Communist authorities responded with mass arrests and the ban on pilgrimages, which have since been carried out in a clandestine manner.

Zhou Zhi Shrine (Shaanxi): China's oldest

A 80 km al suroeste de Xi’an, en la localidad de Zhou Zhi (conocida como el «Monte de la Cruz»), se encuentra el santuario mariano más antiguo de China: data de 1717in the time of the Qing dynasty. The place was nicknamed "the Leopard's Dam" before the arrival of the missionaries, and its transformation into Marian sanctuary embodies the history of the Jesuit mission inside China. Although he suffered damage during the Cultural Revolution, he was restored and remains a regional pilgrimage.

Shanghai: Our Lady Helper of Sheshan - China's only Marian Basilica

In 1863, the Jesuit community of Shanghai acquired a property on Sheshan hill, 35 kilometres west of the city. The Chinese name "She Shan" literally means "snake hill," a name that Catholics interpreted as an allusion to Genesis: the place where Mary crushes the snake's head. The Bishop Adrien Languillat He consecrated the first chapel on March 1, 1868, blessing the image of Our Lady Helper of Christians, copied from the image of Our Lady of Victory in Paris.

The origin of the basilica is wrapped in a dramatic vow: during the Taiping rebellion that threatened to destroy the diocese, the superior Jesuit, Father Gu Zhen Sheng, promised the Virgin to raise a great basilica in Sheshan if the region was safe. The prayer was heard. On May 24, 1871, before more than 6,000 faithful, Bishop Languillat placed the first stone of the basilica, dedicating it to Mary Helper. The Pope Pius IX granted a plenary indulgence to those who made the pilgrimage to Sheshan during the month of May, a practice that began in 1874 and continues to this day.

La basílica se completó entre 1925 y 1935 like the first basilica in the Far East, with a 38-meter tower crowned by a bronze statue of the Virgin. At the top, Mary holds the Child Jesus with her arms extended into a cross. The original statue was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (1966- 1976), and in 2000 more than 10,000 faithful funded the new statue that crowns the basilica. The image shows Mary standing on a Chinese dragon - a symbol of the defeated evil - with the Child up.

En 2007, el Pope Benedict XVI He appointed 24 May as "World Day of Prayer for the Church in China," and in 2008 he personally composed the Prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan. Pope Francis keeps on his desk a small bronze statue of Our Lady of Sheshan, a gift of Cardinal John Tong of Hong Kong, as a constant reminder to pray for the Chinese Church.

The May pilgrimages to Sheshan, despite the Chinese government's restrictions, continue to attract thousands of pilgrims per year who walk up the hill by reciting the stations of the Via Cruces. Fishermen in the Jiangnan region have the tradition of spending three days in spiritual retreat in the sanctuary before fishing.

Fujian: Our Lady of the Rosary - four centuries of Dominican mission

The first Dominican missionaries arrived in south-east China around 1630, entering Fujian - the province that looks at Taiwan - to attend to the small communities of faithful that the Jesuits had evangelized in previous decades. With them came devotion to the Holy Rosary as a central practice of community life. The Dominicans established the first of the Rosary from China, associations of laity who committed themselves to praying the rosary daily, to care for the sick and the poor, and to celebrate the Marian festivities with solemnity.

The history of the Dominican mission in Fujian is also the history of the martyrs. Between 1632 and 1700, many Dominicans were martyred in the province, including several who would be canonized by the Church. The Province of the Most Holy Rosary - founded in Manila in 1587 precisely for the evangelization of the East - he regularly sent missionaries who arrived in China across the Strait of Formosa, often disguised as merchants.

The advocation of Our Lady of the Rosary in Fujian experienced a remarkable renaissance from 1993, when the shrine of Long Tian (Longtian)in the vicinity of Fuzhou. The set includes a village called "Aldea del Rosario," with a Grotto of Lourdes, a retreat house, a training center, a library and a chapel of perpetual Eucharistic worship. The statue was donated by an Italian community as a gesture of solidarity with the Chinese Church. The sanctuary regularly organizes retreats for priests and groups of pilgrims from all over the province.

Sichuan: Our Lady of Lourdes of Mianyang and the MEP footprint

Las Paris Foreign Missions (MEP) They assumed the responsibility of officially evangelizing Sichuan in 1753, consolidating a presence that came from decades ago. The French missionaries carried with them the devotion to the Virgin of France of the 19th century, and when the apparitions of Lourdes (1858) became known throughout the Catholic world, the communities of Sichuan enthusiastically adopted the advocation of Our Lady of Lourdes.

La Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Mianyang (Chengdu diocese) is one of the most active Marian centers in Sichuan. The city of Mianyang, located about 90 kilometres north of Chengdu, has a Catholic community with roots in the 19th century missions. The church, of architecture that mixes European Gothic elements with local materials and proportions, is a place of regional pilgrimage especially during the month of May.

In the western end of Sichuan, in the Tibetan region of Garzê, the church of Santa Ana in Moxi was one of the advanced MEP posts in the area bordering Tibet. The missionaries who operated in these remote regions developed a Marian devotion adapted to the conditions of the high mountain: the images of the Virgin were portable, drawn on fabric or paper, to facilitate the itinerant worship among scattered communities. St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, who maintained spiritual correspondence with the missionary of the MEP Adolfo Rulland, who was stationed in the east of Sichuan, interceded for these missions from his Carmelo de Lisieux.

Yunnan and Tibet: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Yerkalo - the Virgin of the ends of the world

The history of Catholicism in Tibet is one of the most silent and heroic epipeas in missionary history. The MEP received from the Vatican in 1846 the responsibility to evangelize Tibet, an almost inaccessible region, hostile to outsiders and deeply anchored in Tibetan Buddhism. The price was very high: at least 10 priests were killed by Tibetan militias supported by Buddhist lama in the first decades of the mission.

In 1865, the missionaries Felix Biet and Auguste Desgodins founded in the village of Yerkalo - whose Tibetan name means "salt well" - a chapel under the title of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The place, located at an altitude of between 2,650 and 3,109 metres, at the confluence of the current provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan and the Autonomous Region of Tibet, became the only Catholic enclave that survived the persecutions within Tibet.

In 1939, the parish of Yerkalo received devotional statues from the Virgin Mary and from St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, which became the center of the spiritual life of the small community. Today, the church of Yerkalo is the only Catholic church active in the Tibet Autonomous Region, with services held in Tibetan. The community, of about 559 faithful (2014 data), combines the interior of European Gothic style with a façade of traditional Tibetan architecture. The devotion to the Virgin in this community has the sober and tenacious character of those who know what it has cost to keep the faith alive.

The Yunnan region, on the border with Myanmar and Laos, was also a work camp for the MEP. The missionaries who entered the ethnic communities of the minorities (Lisu, Yi, Bai) carried portable images of the Virgin of Carmen and Our Lady of the Rosary, adapted in format and material to the conditions of the mountain terrain. The acvocation of Carmen had special roots among the communities of the Tibetan mission, for the association of Carmel with the life of contemplation and sacrifice on the heights.

Manchuria: Our Lady of the Russian Catholics of Harbin

Harbin, China's most northern city with an international vocation, was an extraordinary multicultural enclave in the early 20th century. The construction of Chinese-Eastern Railroad He brought over 14,000 Russian citizens before 1899, and the defeat in the Russian-Japanese war (1905) and the subsequent Bolshevik Revolution (1917) made Harbin the main destination of the white Russian exiles in Asia. It is estimated that at its height (1920s) the city had more than 100,000 inhabitants of Russian origin.

Within this community, Marian devotion occupied a central place in spiritual life. The Russian exiles who were Catholics of Latin rite - unlike the Orthodox majority - built their own churches in Harbin and maintained the Marian advocacy of their regions of origin: Our Lady of Kazan, Our Lady of Fatima (very popular among the anti-communist exiles) and the advocacy of May. The mixture between Russian Catholics and local Chinese Catholic communities generated unique devotional exchanges in the history of the Church in China.

Harbin's Marian devotion was severely undermined by the arrival of communist power in 1949, which expelled the last foreigners and systematically closed the temples. However, the memory of that Harbin Church remains in the communities of the Chinese Russian diaspora established in Australia, the United States and Latin America.

Taiwan: Our Lady of China of Meishan - pontifical coronation · Global Voices

Taiwan is the heart of the free Chinese Church, and its Marian national sanctuary is in Meishanin Chiayi County, in the south-central part of the island. The Spanish Dominican missionaries arrived in Meishan in 1913, following the same route that had taken them to Fujian since the 17th century. The first church was built in 1931; in 1989, with the growth of the pilgrims, it was replaced by a larger temple completed in 1991.

In 1975, the parish priest of Meishan commissioned a group of local artisans led by Master Fu Lai Chang an image of Our Lady of China, paid for by the faithful of the Diocese of Chiayi. The image was inspired by Donglu's famous miraculous painting but with its own modifications, giving it a specific Taiwanese artistic identity. This image was the protagonist of the first pontifical coronation in the history of Taiwan, granted by the Pope Francis by decree of 19 February 2021 and solemnly executed on 14 August 2022. The feast of Our Lady of Chunghua is celebrated Second Saturday of Mayo.

In Taiwan there is also devotion to Our Lady of Fatimaespecially intense among the anti-communist circles that identified Fatima's message with its own historical situation, and Maria Auxiliadoraof a strong presence in the Salesian works of the island. The Queen of the Rosary is venerated in the Dominican parishes that continue her historic mission.

Hong Kong: The Immaculate Conception and the Stella Maris of the port

La Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception It is the oldest and largest Catholic building in Hong Kong. His parish was established in 1842 by Theodore Joset, the first Apostolic Prefect of Hong Kong, just months after the transfer of the island to Britain. The cathedral, of English neo-Gothic style, was built between 1883 and 1888 and blessed on the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception - December 7, 1888 -, a date choice that clearly expresses the central advocation of the Diocese of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is also Marian territory for its port vocation. The advocation of Stella Maris - Estrella del Mar, patron of the sailors - has historical roots between the communities of fishermen and sailors who inhabited the coastal villages of the territory before their urban transformation. The churches of the fishing communities of the junk boats kept small images of the Virgin on their boats, a practice that was mixed with the devotion of the European sailors who frequented the port.

The Diocese of Hong Kong, despite the pressure of recent decades, keeps active the May Marian devotions, the Rosary cofradies and the special veneration of the Immaculate Conception as patron of the cathedral and of the entire diocese. Cardinal John Tong, who gave Pope Francis the image of Our Lady of Sheshan, represents the continuity of a Church that looks to Our Lady as an intercessor in times of political uncertainty.

Other documented claims in China

In addition to the main provincial claims, the Chinese Marian catalogue includes:

• Our Lady of the Bliss (Guizhou): at least 200 years old sanctuary in the hills north of Guiyang, destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and reopened in 1980.
• Our Lady of Lourdes of Qingyang (Jiangsu):: with an apparition account in 1901; the church, bombed in 1939, was rebuilt in 1993 and consecrated on 1 May 1994. The blessing ceremony brought together 40,000 pilgrims.
• Our Lady Sick Healing (Jiao Jiang): sanctuary whose origin is in a miraculous healing; built in 1913, he preserved an old board with the title "Healing of Sick" through the Cultural Revolution.
• Our Lady of Zhang Ke: advocation linked to an apparition to a foreign missionary lost in the forest in 1917.
• Our Lady of Shang Dong: four-century-old Catholic people with remarkable production of priestly vocations, a symbol of the generational fidelity of the Chinese faith.

Our Lady of China, Queen of the Chinese People, watches over your children of this immense country and guides the entire Church of China towards peace and freedom. Amen.