Marian Apparitions in China

Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Sunday Examiner) - The month of May is Our Lady’s month and Christians suddenly become pilgrims rather than tourists as they flock in their tens of thousands to Marian shrines throughout the whole of the Christian world. An extremely large number travel to Lourdes, France; others go to Fatima, Portugal or to Ireland to honour Our Lady of Knock, to Poland to venerate the famous Black Madonna of Czestochowa; Italians are partial to Loreto and in the Americas thousands go to Mexico to pray at the beloved shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

A Marian shrine is usually a place where the faithful and the Church believe Our Lady has appeared or where some miracle or other supernatural event has taken place through the intercession of the Holy Mother, whom the Chinese like to call Our Lady.

May is also Our Lady’s special month in China. May is the time when Chinese Catholics take to the waterways in their sampans or make their way up mountaintops by the tens of thousands to pray at shrines dedicated to Our Lady.

China has a number of Marian shrines. There is the shrine of Our Lady of Bliss situated in the hills north of Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province in southwestern China. This shrine is reputed to be at least 200-years-old. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and since it was reopened in 1980, has attracted numerous devotees of Our Lady annually.

There is the new shrine in Fuzhou, opened on 30 April 1993 on top of the hill in Longtian village near Fuzhou city, Fujian province. This shrine is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary and called Rosary Villa. The title given to the shrine is reminiscent of the fact that the Dominicans, who were in Fujian province before Liberation, had dedicated the area to Mary of the Rosary. A statue of Our Lady, a gift from Italy, stands in the middle of the Chinese style pavilion on the shrine grounds. The shrine is used as a place for priests’ retreats and for group pilgrimages. It was set up by Fuzhou’s elderly bishop to promote unity and community in the Catholic Church.

On 1 May 1994, the famous Marian shrine adjacent to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Qingyang township in Nanjing diocese, Jiangsu province, reopened after having been closed for some 55 years. Tens of thousands of pilgrims were drawn to the site.

In 1901, according to Old Catholics, Our Lady of Lourdes appeared in Qingyang and healed many of the sick. The Church bought a piece of land and built a church where Our Lady is said to have appeared and it immediately became a popular pilgrimage site. The building was bombed by the Japanese in 1939 and was later turned into a factory. It still functions as a factory today. However, in 1993, some 200 metres from the original site, construction began on a new church. Some 40,000 of the faithful attended the blessing of the new church on 1 May 1994. Regular pilgrimages resumed in 1995 with people coming from Wuxi, Shanghai and all the nearby dioceses. There are, however, two shrines that stand out in a very special way: the Marian shrine in Donglu and the Marian shrine at Sheshan.

In 1900, China reported three apparitions: one in Beijing in which Our Lady was accompanied by St. Michael the archangel who, in turn, was surrounded by multitudes of angels. A second apparition involved a weeping statue of Our Lady in the village of Santai during the Boxer Rebellion. The third apparition occurred in Donglu. Donglu is about 40 kilometres from Baoding in Hebei province, and it is one of the strongholds of the unofficial Catholic Church in China. Witnesses recount that a beautiful lady, recognised as Mary, appeared in the skies. The Catholics implored Our Lady to save them from their enemies and their city from destruction. In thanksgiving for Our Lady’s protection over the city of Donglu during the Boxer Rebellion, a beautiful church was built in her honour. It was meant to serve as a constant reminder to the people of Mary’s loving and motherly protection. The pastor, at the time, secured a painting of the Dowager Empress Ci Xi dressed in imperial robes. He commissioned an artist to use it as the background for the image of Our Lady holding the Christ Child. The picture was hung in the Church of Donglu, which eventually became a famous place of pilgrimage.

People began coming to the shrine in Donglu in 1924, but the first official pilgrimage took place in 1929. By 1932, the location had become such a popular pilgrimage site that Pope Pius XI approved it as an official Marian shrine. Since 1929 tens of thousands of pilgrims have made their way up the hill to the shrine, especially in the month of May.

On 23 May 1995, pilgrims witnessed another phenomenon. Over 30,000 Catholics from the unofficial Church had gathered for Mass at the Donglu shrine. It was the vigil of the Feast of Our Lady, Mary Help of Christians, a favourite of Chinese Catholics. There were four bishops of the unofficial Church concelebrating the Mass and nearly 100 unofficial priests standing in the open field, all eager to honour Our Lady in a special way during her special month. Suddenly, during the opening prayer and again during the consecration, the people observed the sun spinning from right to left. Light rays of various shades emanated from the sky. The people, mesmerised by the phenomenon, could look directly at it without blinking. Suddenly from the centre of the sun people saw what they later described as an apparition. Some beheld the Cross; others said they had seen the Holy Family. Still others had seen Our Lady holding the Infant Jesus while others claimed they had seen the Sacred Host. People, overwhelmed by the vision, suddenly became conscious of their sinfulness and began to cry out, “Holy Mother, forgive me my sins,” or “Holy Virgin Mary, have pity on us your children.” The phenomenon of the sun changing colours, approaching and then retreating while radiating various hues, lasted for about 20 minutes.

Needless to say, the government has not been terribly enthusiastic about having thousands upon thousands of people gather anywhere. This is all the more threatening when the gathering involves religion and people of the unofficial Church. The Public Security Bureau, the agency in charge of keeping watch over the unofficial Catholic community, periodically flexes its muscles to prevent anyone from going on pilgrimage to Donglu. In 1995, when tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked to Donglu for the Feast of Mary Help of Christians on May 24, the Public Security barred all pilgrims from joining anyone on the hill. The police forced people back into buses and trains without offering any explanation. Still, thousands successfully reached the area by finding alternative ways to get there. As many as 100,000 participated in the celebration.

Again in 1996, an official announcement forbade anyone from going to the Donglu shrine. This time two reasons were given for the prohibition: it was an illegal gathering and it was bad for social stability.

Teams of Public Security agents as large as 500 strong were dispatched to all the villages surrounding the Donglu area and to towns all over Hebei Province. As they travelled around, they tried to force the members of the unofficial community to join the Patriotic Association and to do away with unrecognised religious premises such as Donglu. Priests in the towns and villages were ordered not to leave their residences and were forbidden to preach from May 13 until further notice. Lay people were also forbidden to leave their villages. Parents were not allowed to take their children to church or to wear any religious objects.

It seems no amount of pressure can dull the enthusiam of Catholics intent on honouring Our Lady at the Donglu shrine. Every May, regardless of prohibitions, tens of thousands of pilgrims make their way up the steep hill, either in silence or reciting the rosary or singing hymns to praise one who is truly their mother and protector.

In June 1989, Pope John Paul II prayed that the Virgin of Sheshan Help of Christians, would look kindly on “the beloved Chinese people.” This remark by Our Holy Father indicates the importance of this shrine as a symbol of Christian renewal in China. Sheshan, with its “nine peaks above the clouds” is situated about 35 kilometres from Shanghai city. Its forest of bamboo, its scenic winding paths and running brooks are a fitting location for communing with God and Our Lady. The mountain, according to legend, gets its name from a hermit named She who centuries ago, lived atop the mountain.

In 1866, the Church in Shanghai built a hexagonal pavilion and placed within it an altar and a statue of Our Lady. Five years later, the Jesuits built a church at the summit of the mountain and dedicated it to Our Lady Help of Christians, opening it in 1873.

In 1924, the bishops of China consecrated the nation to Our Lady and following the consecration they made a pilgrimage to Sheshan. Work on a basilica began in 1925 and was completed 10 years later. This church was the first basilica in all of the Far East and it became China’s favourite pilgrimage site.

During the Cultural Revolution the beautiful bronze statue of Our Lady at the pinnacle of the basilica disappeared and other religious symbols, including the altar and the stained glass window were all virtually destroyed. A replica of the bronze statue of Mary holding up the Christ Child was finally re-installed on top of the tower in the year 2000. Some 10,000 believers paid for it. Pilgrimages to the shrine resumed in 1979.

Every year since then, pilgrims by the thousands have flocked to Sheshan. In 1990, the first pilgrimage of the decade saw 30,000 Catholics coming to Sheshan for Our Lady’s feast. The elderly and the young made the long steep climb from the foothills of the mountain to the summit as a testimony of their love and devotion to Our Lady. One large group of pilgrims are the fisherfolk of Jiangnan who, from earliest times, sailed up the Yangtze, carefully steering their craft through the canals surrounding the foothills of the mountain.

Every year, they come, moor their boats and spend three days and nights at Sheshan to implore Our Lady’s help for the future and to thank her for favours received. But they are only a small group compared to the thousands from all over China who come to pay tribute to their heavenly mother in whom they place so much of their trust.

Thank you Maeo for that reminder about Jesus at Knock as the Lamb Who was sacrificed for us.

With all due respect to you protestants: I don’t understand how you can reduce the Mother of God to nothing more than a borrowed womb who was then cast aside by Jesus as though she had no more importance whatsoever! Do you really think Jesus Christ (Who is GOD) is pleased with your degrading treatment of the Woman He PERSONALLY DESIGNED to be His Mother? To be YOUR Mother???

While Mary did not create God in His Divinity, for she is mortal, did not exist from all eternity, and can never be Divine, and He is Uncreated, She nonetheless gave him HIS FLESH AND HIS BLOOD (Galatians 4:4) That means the PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST that redeemed us WAS TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE BLOOD OF MARY... which means that since God cannot be tainted by sin, the Woman whose blood He chose to flow through His veins had to be completely PURE and immaculate...WITHOUT SIN FROM THE 1ST MOMENT OF HER CONCEPTION...Now if YOU were God, and YOU were going to create YOUR OWN MOTHER are you going to deliberately make her with ORIGINAL SIN or are you going to make her FLAWLESS IN EVERY WAY? If you say you would NOT make your own mother FLAWLESS IN EVERY WAY YOU WOULD NOT BE TELLING THE TRUTH, so don’t try to fool yourself (or us) for the sake of maintaining your UNCHRISTIAN position in this debate. Yes, Mary needed a Savior, just like She admitted in the Gospel of Luke (1:47), but as God it was nothing for Him to keep her from being touched by any stain of sin from the moment of her conception. This is why in Job we are told that incorruptible seed CANNOT BE BORN of CORRUPTIBLE seed. That means the incorruptible Christ could NOT have come from a CORRUPTIBLE Woman. This is why Mary said in Luke: “He that is Mighty hath done great thingS to me...” Notice she said “things” PLURAL, and not “a great thing to me”. If she was talking just about her miraculous pregnancy, that would only be ONE thing. But in order for that pregnancy to occur, other THINGS had to happen to prepare her for that moment, and these things obviously were revealed to her at the same time, although the Bible does not go into all that IN THIS PARTICULAR PLACE. It can be found in other parts of the Bible, and not in the “apocryphal” books that you protestants erroneously reject.
As for Mary’s intercession, she intercedes for us almost every time she appears in Scripture. Most importantly, She intercedes for us when Gabriel announces her destiny to be the Mother of God by selflessly agreeing to accept this role and all the suffering it will bring with it, thereby INITIATING our salvation...Eve initiated our downfall by refusing God and putting herself first...Mary, the New Eve, initiated our redemption by accepting God and putting herself last...And yes, Mary was the Mother of GOD, not just of Jesus’ humanity, because to say that Mary was the Mother of Jesus in His human nature only, is to make Jesus TWO persons in one body (one Divine and one human, but separated, like oil and water in a glass) when in fact His Divine and Human natures FUSED together into ONE NATURE. Furthermore, all throughout the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis, God is referred to as “the LORD God” long before Jesus took on any humanity. Therefore, SPEAKING BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth cried out in Luke 1:43: “Who am I that the Mother of my LORD should come to me?” Mary was the Mother of BOTH of Jesus’ natures at this point, BECAUSE THOSE TWO NATURES WERE NOW FOREVER INSEPERABLE.
Mary interceded again in John Chapter 2 at the Wedding at Cana. Why does it say first; “There was a wedding in Cana, AND THE MOTHER OF JESUS WAS THERE”, and then, secondary, it says, “Jesus and His disciples were also invited to the wedding.” Why didn’t John say: “There was a wedding in Cana, and Jesus, His Mother, and His disciples were invited.” ? Because John is about to tell us something important about MARY and her relationship to her Divine Son. When the wine ran out Mary told Jesus there was no more wine. Did Jesus need His Mother to tell Him this? No, as God, He already knew the wine ran out. But He also knew if He didn’t act on this, His Mother would bring it to His attention anyway, so He deliberately waited for Her to come to him about it, and Mary did so because She knew that as GOD, Jesus COULD do something about it. And He said to Her, “Woman, what is this to Me and to Thee, My hour has not yet come?” Was this really a rebuke? First of all, Jesus always refers to His Mother as “Woman” in key parts of salvation history. The term “Woman” is that mystical term used in Genesis 3:15 when God put enmity between the “Woman” and the “Serpent” (Satan). Mary is the WOMAN, the Second Eve, who would undo the damage caused by the first Eve. Jesus is identifying His Mother as the prophesied Woman of Genesis, the Second Eve. Now, according to you protestants, Mary is allegedly scarlet with humiliation from this “rebuke” by Her Son at Cana and turns to those present and says: “Do whatever He tells you.” In other words, according to YOU, she is admitting she is a helpless failure as an intercessor, and that only JESUS should be followed, NOT HER (as if this was even hinted at in this story, which it is NOT). You are WRONG. Read these passages again. Mary KNOWS that Jesus is going to work the miracle (even though His hour has not yet come) and that’s why she turns and tells the servants “Do whatever He tells you” because She is telling them that, no matter how odd it may sound, Jesus is going to give them instructions, and they are to follow Jesus’ instructions to the letter because He is going to make new wine for them. And they follow His instructions, and the miracle occurs. Remember: 1. Jesus didn’t need Mary to tell Him the wine ran out. 2. He waited for Mary to ask Him to make more wine. 3. He called her by that mystical Title reserved specifically for HER from the time of the Fall. 4. Mary knew He would do it for her and told the servants to follow whatever instructions He was going to give them. 5. He worked the Miracle - because HIS MOTHER ASKED HIM TO - even though the time for Him to begin working miracles HAD NOT ARRIVED YET.
Numerous other Biblically-based incidents that completely support Catholic teaching about Mary abound, but there is not space to cover them all now, but I will finish with one more thing you protestants have such a problem with: Mary as Queen of Heaven. Is this Biblical? According to you, the only “queen of Heaven” mentioned in the Bible is the false goddess Ashteroth (Jeremiah 7:18, Jeremiah 44:17-19, etc) In Revelation 19:16 Our Lord God Jesus is called “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”. Now the Holy Spirit in Luke 1:43 already called His Bride “Mother of the Lord” which we know throughout the Old Testament LORD is the exact same thing as GOD. Now, on THIS planet, where ALL THIS TOOK PLACE, the Mother of a King is ALWAYS AUTOMATICALLY A QUEEN. And if Jesus Christ is the KING of Kings, and the LORD of Lords, then His Mother Mary is not an ordinary queen, She is the QUEEN of queens! And as the Queen, She rules over the very same kingdom that Her Son rules over, (which is ALL CREATION, HEAVEN, EARTH, THE UNIVERSE) and while He is the Primary Ruler, She nevertheless has the right to rule over His subjects (YOU AND ME, HER CHILDREN, AS IDENTIFIED IN REVELATIONS 12:17) but in a SUBORDINATE manner. Furthermore, Psalms 44:10 (in the original HEBREW texts, and the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome (before the protestants got to the Bible and changed the texts and made it Psalms 45:9) we are clearly told that ON GOD’S RIGHT HAND STANDS THE QUEEN, dressed in finest GOLD. Now, since you protestants relegate the great Mother of GOD, (who is YOUR MOTHER ALSO according to Rev. 12:17) to nothing more than a borrowed womb that is afterward discarded like a used vessel that has no further importance, we Catholics can only conclude (based on your faulty LITERAL interpretation of the Scriptures) that since the only “queen of Heaven” specifically mentioned in the Bible is the false goddess Ashteroth, it can only be this false goddess that God loathes so egregiously who nonetheless stands at His Right Hand dressed in finest gold. Or do you now dare not go THAT FAR with your bold anti-Marian biblical misrenderings? Enough now! Discard the satanic and foolish pride of Adam and Eve that blinds you too and HUMBLE yourself to accept that if the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of CHRIST IN BOTH OF HIS NATURES, DIVINE AND HUMAN, WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR JESUS, SHE SHOULD BE MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU! Or are you better than Jesus??? How can you say you have any love and respect for your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when you blaspheme, belittle, and strip of all her RIGHTLY DESERVED PREROGATIVES, HIS OWN BELOVED MOTHER? Even Satan and all the abominable demons of Hell regard Her with more honor and respect than you do, as has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history in exorcisms! Exorcists tell us that while God, the angels and saints, the Pope, and all other beings are insulted through and through, the Devil and his horde always refrain from blaspheming and insulting the Blessed Virgin Mary...Do you know why?? Because they are intelligent enough to know that they will get mercilessly CLOBBERED by Her Divine Son, the LORD GOD Jesus Christ above and beyond what they already suffer in their eternal damnation! And yet you don’t hesitate to reduce her to nothing more than a common sinner who went back to being nobody special after she gave birth to the Savior of the world, and no doubt you sleep peacefully at night on top of it! Amazing! Absolutely Amazing! You truly have no fear of GOD, to be so bold and haughty in your degradation of His Mother, and to teach and prejudice your children against Her as well, to grow and teach THEIR children to do the same thing! What a strange and deformed Christianity you have crafted for yourselves! Truly, not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who follow ALL of Christ’s teachings, not just the select few that make you comfortable!
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee (Luke 1:28) blessed art Thou amongst women (Luke 1:42) and blessed is the Fruit of Thy womb (Luke 1:42) Jesus! Holy Mary, Mother of God (Luke 1:43) pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, AMEN!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.