Marian devotion
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On a mountain of 1,760 metres from Yangon County is one of the great Marian shrines in northern China. The Virgin is venerated there as Our Lady of the Angels of the Porcine, title inherited from Franciscan spirituality and the small chapel of the Porciuncula of Assisi.
Advocation: Our Lady of the Angels of the Porciuncula.
Local name: The temple of the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula.
Name of the place: Bansithan, Bansiquan o Banquanshan, según las divertes trancripciones.
Place: Bansishan mountain, Yangon County, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China.
Jurisdiction: Catholic Archdiocese of Taiyuan.
Main party: August 2, the feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Porcíuncula.
Another great pilgrimage: August 15, Assumption of the Virgin.
Nature: Catholic advocation, diocesan Marian sanctuary and place of Franciscan tradition.
What Porciuncula means
The Porciuncula is the small church of Santa María de los Angeles, near Assisi, which occupies a central place in the life of San Francisco. There he prayed, gathered his first brothers and received Saint Clara. The Latin name means "small portion of land." The Franciscan tradition celebrates on 2 August the Forgiveness of Assisi or indulgence of the Porciuncula.
Taiyuan's Catholic mission was long entrusted to Franciscans. That is why the Shanxi shrine received the same title as the Italian chapel: the Queen of the Angels welcoming her children in a small portion of Chinese mountain.
A Marian presence prior to the present temple
The Archdiocese of Taiyuan documents the existence of a church in Bansishan between 1774 y 1778. The Marian building that has reached the contemporary time was built between 1895 y 1898, during the episcopate of St Gregory Mary Grassi, Franciscan and one of the canonized martyrs of China.
The site, far away and raised, favoured spiritual retreat. The surrounding villages had many Catholic families and the mountain gradually became a pilgrimage destination for Shanxi and other provinces.
The rise to the mountain
The pilgrims arrive in Yangon County and continue to the village of Wangjianao. From there the tradition is to make the last stretch on foot. In the course of the rise there are fourteen stations of the road crucis. The road unites the contemplation of the Passion of Christ with the arrival of his Mother's sanctuary.
Xinde describes a small chapel of the Immaculate before reaching the main set, a door crowned by an image of Mary and the ancient temple of the Queen of Angels. The environment includes spaces of catechesis, Christian memory and prayer, as well as images of St. Joseph and Christ.
Reconstruction and continuity
After the great ruptures suffered by the Chinese Church in the 20th century, the sanctuary was restored in 1986. The church was rehabilitated and the itinerary of the fourteen stations was prepared. The opening of a road from Yangon in 2000 facilitated access, although many faithful kept the penance climb on foot.
The archdiocese has confirmed Bansishan as one of its pilgrimage places and included him among the Jubilee churches. Fides also documents pilgrimages that link this sanctuary to Dong'ergou, showing that both form the two great Marian poles of Taiyuan: Bansishan to the north and the Mountain of the Seven Dolores to the south.
The party of August 2
On August 2, pilgrims come from Taiyuan and other provinces to participate in the Eucharist, to confess, to pray the rosary and to go through the crucis. A 2011 chronicle shows the participation of more than 10,000 people; other historical estimates speak of tens of thousands during the August holidays.
The celebration is not limited to remembering an Italian building. It expresses the insertion of a universal Franciscan devotion in the concrete history of the rural communities of Shanxi.
Location for the Marian map
The sanctuary is located on the hillside of Bansishan, south-east of the head of Yangon County and north-east Taiyuan. Its verified cartographic position is 37.98530, 112.78859. This fact sheet is incorporated into the map as its own advocation and not as a generic designation of "Virgin of Grace."
Spirituality of the small portion
The Porciuncula recalls that God can begin a great work in a small place. In Bansishan, a remote mountain became a house of prayer for crowds. The advocation calls for the simplicity of Mary, Franciscan peace and reconciliation.
Prayer to Our Lady of the Angels of Bansishan
Mary, Queen of the Angels and Mother of the Church, welcomes those who go up to your mountain with their work and hope. Show us the humility of the little Porciuncula, the peace of Saint Francis and the fidelity of the Christians of China. Take us to reconciliation with God and our brothers. Our Lady of Bansishan, pray for us. Amen.
Sources consulted
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