Our Lady of Pico de Pingyin - Huzhuang Sanctuary

Marian devotion

Where is he?

The shrine of Our Lady of Pico is located in Huzhuang, Pingyin County, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China. The sources also name it as the sanctuary or pilgrimage center of Our Lady of the Huzhuang Pico and, in Chinese, the Pico de Huzhuang. The point of the map corresponds to the cult building identified by OpenStreetMap in el way 1055969077: 36,2395, 116,4247. The coordinate places the temple, does not intend to represent every historical place in the community of Huzhuang.

Documented history

The Catholic presence in Huzhuang is located by a source of the Xinde Cultural Association in 1604. According to this local historical account, the first Catholics in the place were Hu Yueyan and his wife, who raised in Jianshan a simple stone construction, placed a cross and began prayer there. The same source states that in 1730 the people of the people had become Catholic and that, between 1730 and 1736, priests arrived who organized the community. In 1736, the priest Lu Andao was the first priest of Huzhuang. These statements are preserved as a local history documented by the source consulted, not as a date of supernatural origin of the sanctuary.

The devotion developed around several places of worship of Huzhuang and Pingyin. The fountain of Xinde mentions the Marian church of the mountain and the church of the Immaculate Conception located in the village, as well as other places of pilgrimage in the area. The registration of the Pingyin County Chronicle documents that the chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes of Jianshan was repaired with permission from the religious office of Jinan in 1989, completed in 1990 and opened to worship that same year. It also records the subsequent restoration of the church of the Immaculate Conception of Huzhuang, concluded in 2002. These works belong to the recent history of buildings and should not be confused with an approval of apparitions.

El registro de Catholic Hierarchy/GCatholic identifica el lugar como Our Lady of the Peak, a sanctuary of the Archdiocese of Jinan in Huzhuangcun, Shandong. Fides described a pilgrimage to the center of Our Lady of the Pico de Huzhuang at the end of Mary's month: a few hundred pilgrims came accompanied by the parish priest, the parish band, the choir, the biblical study group and the youth group. The news documents an activity of worship and pilgrimage; it does not present a concrete apparition or a recognized miracle.

Tradition and devotion

The local tradition looks to the mountain as a Marian pilgrimage linked to the Catholic life of Huzhuang. The sources describe the path of prayer, the stations of the path of the crucis and the celebration of the month of Mary in May. They also present Huzhuang as a community with a long history of vocations and ecclesial service. They are testimonies of the memory and religious practice of the place: they do not therefore become evidence of supernatural phenomena.

The title "Our Lady of the Pico" expresses the relationship between the image of Mary, the mountain and the community that pilgrims to her. This fact sheet speaks of the veneration of the Virgin and the request for her intercession. Adoration belongs only to God.

Legend

There is no supernatural foundational legend verified for this sanctuary. The sources consulted describe the historical arrival of Catholicism, the construction and restoration of churches and pilgrimages. No decree has been found to recognize an apparition of the Virgin in Jianshan or a file that declares a concrete fact related to the sanctuary miraculous.

Ecclesial State

The place has public Catholic veneration and is documented as a Marian pilgrimage center linked to Jinan. That's why it's registered as permitted veneration in the sense of documented religious activity. This state does not amount to the approval of an apparition, a private revelation or a miracle. For this sanctuary there is no specific pronunciation of supernatural to be added.

Anecdotes and stories

The pilgrimage of Fides shows a community dimension that continues to accompany the sanctuary: there were not only individual visitors, but also parish groups dedicated to music, biblical formation and youth pastoral. The local history of Huzhuang also retains the memory of a community that has been consolidated for centuries and which has led to several churches, chapels and vocations. The administrative chronicle of Pingyin records the reconstruction of the mountain chapel after the years of the interruption of the cult, a fact that helps to distinguish the continuity of devotion from the material continuity of the buildings.

Prayer

Holy Mary, Our Lady of Pico de Pingyin, accompanies the community of Huzhuang and those who go up to your sanctuary to seek comfort and renew their faith. Pray for families, priests, young people and all pilgrims. Teach us to walk towards your Son with humility, to serve those who suffer and to always ask for the grace of God. Amen.

Sources

• Agenzia Fides, «May the month of Mary closes with pilgrimage to Hu Zhuang Marian Shrine».
• Xinde, "Why Shandong Pingyin is a famous place of pilgrimage" (Chinese source; local history of tradition has been distinguished).
• Shandong Local History Archive, section on the Catholic Church in the Pingyin County Chronicle.
• G Catholic, Our Lady of the Peak, Huzhuangcun.
• OpenStreetMap, 尖山圣母堂, way 1055969077.

The assistance figures offered by the Xinde source belong to its own description of the Pingyin pilgrimage and have not been presented here as an independent census. What is documented by several sources is the existence of a Marian cult place in Huzhuang, its belonging to the Jinan ecclesial environment, the continuity of the pilgrimages and the restoration of the mountain chapel in recent history. This is why the map points to the located building and the tab keeps the devotion, the history of the buildings and any supernatural affirmation separate.