The Sheshan Shrine

Sheshan hill, west of Shanghai

The shrine occupies the summit of Sheshan hill (佘山), a wooded eminence about a hundred metres high overlooking the plain, in Songjiang District, some thirty kilometres west of the heart of Shanghai.^[3] In a delta region as flat as this one, this modest but clearly visible relief attracted attention very early: it can be seen from afar, and the basilica crowning it today stands out distinctly above the trees.^[4] The hill divides into two knolls, West Sheshan and East Sheshan; the shrine crowns the western summit, and the astronomical observatory founded by the Jesuits stands on the same western slope, a little to the west of the basilica (see below).^[5]

Zô-sè: the missionary name of the place

In the Jesuit archives of the 19th and early 20th century, the place hardly ever appears under the modern Mandarin form "Sheshan", but under the transcription of the Shanghai dialect: Zô-sè (sometimes written Zose or Zô-Sè).^[6] It is under this name that the summit statue was long designated — Our Lady of Zô-sè — and that the neighbouring observatory was known to the international scientific community.^[7] The Marian title of the place is Mary Help of Christians (in Chinese jìn jiào zhī yòu, 进教之佑), the traditional title of the Virgin succouring the Church, particularly dear to the Jesuits of the Jiangnan mission.^[8]

The purchase of the hill and the missionaries' rest house

The Christian history of the hill begins in the mid-19th century, shortly after the 1844-1846 edicts of toleration once again authorised Catholic worship in China.^[9] According to the mission's tradition, it was the Jesuit Claude Gotteland (南格禄, Nán Gélù), first superior of the restored Jiangnan mission, who spotted Sheshan hill around 1844 and judged the spot ideal for establishing a rest house for elderly or sick missionaries.^[10] The Jesuits gradually bought land on the hill and, in 1863, Fr. Orbi had a few pavilions and a chapel built there; the following year, in 1864, Fr. Du Ruolan erected a hexagonal pavilion housing a statue of the Virgin.^[11]

The chapel and the Help of Christians statue (1868)

On 1 March 1868, the Bishop of Jiangnan, Bishop Adrien Languillat (郎怀仁, Láng Huáirén), a Jesuit, blessed the chapel and the statue, and placed the place under the patronage of Mary Help of Christians.^[12] The statue had been painted by the lay brother Lu Shengsan in imitation of the famous Virgin of Notre-Dame des Victoires in Paris, home of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: it is this Parisian model that established the iconography of the Sheshan Help of Christians.^[13] From that moment, the hill was no longer merely a convalescent home: it became a small Marian shrine to which faithful from the region began to climb.

Fr. Gu's vow under the Taiping threat

The great church of Sheshan was born of a vow. In the 1860s, the Taiping Rebellion — a vast insurrection ravaging southern China and several times threatening Shanghai — posed a grave threat to the Jiangnan mission.^[14] The Jesuit superior Gu Zhensheng (谷振声) climbed Sheshan hill and promised the Virgin to raise a church of thanksgiving in her honour if the mission were spared:

"If the diocese is saved from the attack of the rebels, we will build a basilica in thanksgiving for Our Lady's special protection." — Vow attributed to Fr. Gu Zhensheng, c. 1864^[15]

The hostilities came to an end and Shanghai was preserved. In September 1870, Fr. Gu made his vow public, reminded the faithful of the protection received and launched an appeal for donations to build the promised church.^[16]

The laying of the foundation stone (24 May 1871)

On 24 May 1871, the feast of Mary Help of Christians, Bishop Languillat presided over the laying of the foundation stone of the summit church, in the presence of some six thousand faithful — a considerable number for the Chinese Christendom of the time.^[17] The building was designed by the Jesuit brother Léon Mariot (1830-1902). All materials — timber brought from Shanghai, stone purchased in Fujian — had to be carried up by hand to the summit, along the winding path that would later serve as the pilgrimage way.^[18]

The "summit" church, consecrated on 15 April 1873

On 15 April 1873, the church — cruciform in plan and in the so-called "Greek" style, blending Western and Chinese elements, with a veranda of ten columns and eight stone lions — was consecrated by Bishop Languillat.^[19] This is the first great summit church, the one that made Sheshan a shrine in its own right, before being in turn judged too small and demolished half a century later to make way for the present basilica.

The indulgence of Pius IX (1874)

In the very year following the consecration, in 1874, Pope Pius IX granted a plenary indulgence to pilgrims climbing to Sheshan during the month of May, the month traditionally dedicated to the Virgin.^[20] This favour set the rhythm of the shrine: each year, in the Marian month, faithful flocked from all over the country. The Sheshan May pilgrimage thus became one of the great gatherings of Chinese Catholicism, and it has remained so down to the contemporary restrictions.^[21]

The "holy mountain": Way of the Cross, middle chapel and Three Pavilions

To welcome the pilgrims, the hill was gradually developed into a holy mountain. The winding path that had served to carry up the materials became a Way of the Cross (苦路): the fourteen stations, first cast in iron in 1873, mark the ascent to the shrine.^[22] Halfway up, in 1894, the middle chapel (中山堂, Zhongshan) was built, dedicated to Mary Mediatrix, a mandatory stop of the procession.^[23] Right beside it stand the Three Pavilions (三圣亭), dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Virgin and Saint Joseph, where pilgrims pause to pray before reaching the summit.^[24] This tiered arrangement — Way of the Cross, intermediate chapel, summit shrine — gives Sheshan the structure of a genuine ascending spiritual journey.

Sheshan hill is not only a shrine: it is also home to one of the great centres of Jesuit science in China. Extending the work of the Xujiahui (Zikawei) observatory, Fr. Stanislas Chevalier (1852-1930) had a genuine astronomical observatory built around 1899-1900 on the same western slope, not far from the basilica.^[25] A 40 cm double refractor made in Paris in 1899 was installed there, along with a rotating dome some ten metres in diameter; the Zô-sè observatory then became the largest in the Far East, devoted to the study of sunspots, spectroscopy, gravity measurement and microseisms.^[26] This dual vocation — prayer at the summit, science a little lower on the same slope — would remain one of the distinctive features of the place, and the observatory would later play an unexpected role in the so-called 1979 "radiance of the Holy Virgin" episode (see below).

Why rebuild? The Council of Shanghai (1924)

In the early 1920s, the 1873 church was judged too small and outclassed by the great churches of Shanghai; the project of a monumental basilica took shape.^[27] The decisive impetus came from the first plenary council of China, gathered in Shanghai in 1924 under the presidency of the Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Celso Costantini (created cardinal in 1953). On 14 June 1924, the Apostolic Delegate and twenty-five bishops solemnly consecrated China to the Virgin Mary — a gesture that made Sheshan the national Marian shrine and justified the ambition of the new building.^[28]

The architects: De Moerloose and Brother Diniz

The plans for the new basilica were entrusted to the Belgian missionary-architect Alphonse De Moerloose (1858-1932), a specialist in religious architecture in China.^[29] The day-to-day direction of the works fell to the Portuguese Jesuit François-Xavier Diniz (1869-1943), known in Chinese as Ye Zhaochang (叶肇昌).^[30] His reputation for exacting standards has remained proverbial: the foundations were sunk down to the bedrock, bricks were laid according to strict quotas, and any non-compliant work was demolished and redone. It is this rigour that explains why construction lasted ten years.^[31]

"No nail, no wood, no steel, no beam"

The technical feat of Sheshan is summed up in a formula consecrated by the Chinese: the basilica is said to be "without nail, without wood, without steel, without beam" (无钉无木无钢无梁).^[32] The building rests entirely on masonry: brick and stone vaults and arches carry the whole without any timber framing or metal skeleton — a feat all the more remarkable given that every material had to be carried up by human porters to the top of the hill.^[33]

Plan, dimensions and materials

The old church was demolished in 1923 and reconstruction ran from 1925 to 1935.^[34] The basilica follows a Latin-cross plan of about 56 metres east to west by 25 metres north to south (up to 35 m at the transept), with a vault height of about 16 metres and a capacity of some three thousand faithful.^[35] The outer walls are of red brick and granite; part of the roof is covered with polychrome glazed tiles in the Chinese tradition, and the high altar is of marble enhanced with gold and inlaid with jade.^[36] The overall style is Romanesque, with Neo-Gothic elements, and tall coloured stained-glass windows.^[37]

The bell tower and the bronze Help of Christians statue

At the corner of the basilica rises a square bell tower 38 metres high, crowned with an "olive-shaped" dome carried on sixteen columns.^[38] At its summit watches a bronze statue of Mary Help of Christians: 4.8 metres high and weighing about 1.8 tonnes, it depicts the Virgin raising the Child Jesus, whose outstretched arms form a cross; beneath Mary's feet is figured a dragon, image of the vanquished demon.^[39] Seen from afar, the whole bronze silhouette evokes a great cross raised above the Shanghai plain — a symbol that has become the emblem of the shrine.^[40]

The consecration (16 November 1935)

The basilica was completed and consecrated on 16 November 1935 by Bishop Auguste Haouisée (惠济良), a Jesuit, Apostolic Vicar of Shanghai.^[41] Ten years of works atop a hill had thus given Catholic China its greatest Marian shrine.

The Compertum Habemus decree of Pius XII (1942)

On 12 September 1942 — the decree having been drafted on the preceding 24 July — Pope Pius XII, by the bull Compertum Habemus, raised the shrine of Sheshan to the rank of minor basilica.^[42] Sheshan thus became the first basilica of the Far East, a distinction sealing its status as the Chinese national shrine.^[43]

The coronation of the statue (8 May 1946)

On 8 May 1946, Archbishop Paul Yu Pin (于斌) of Nanking (created cardinal in 1969) solemnly crowned the image of Our Lady of Sheshan before more than ten thousand Catholics.^[44] The shrine was then at its peak: minor basilica, crowned image, national May pilgrimage. The trials of the following half-century would not be long in coming.

The Cultural Revolution

After 1949, the shrine passed under the control of the Chinese Catholics' Patriotic Association, while the legitimate Bishop of Shanghai, Bishop Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei, was imprisoned for more than thirty years.^[45] During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Sheshan was hard hit: the stations of the Way of the Cross were destroyed, the stained-glass windows smashed, the bronze statue unbolted from the bell tower and replaced by a simple iron cross; the middle chapel was sacked and the observatory turned into a gymnasium.^[46]

The 1979 "radiance of the Holy Virgin"

In October 1979, Catholics reported having seen a "radiance of the Holy Virgin" (圣母发光) at the top of the hill.^[47] The episode was examined and, by January 1980, explained as reflections of sunlight on the windows of the neighbouring observatory and on the glazed tiles of the basilica.^[48] The event, without any recognised supernatural character, illustrates the popular fervour surrounding the place in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, and the singular proximity of the shrine and the scientific observatory.

The restoration and the new statue (2000)

From the 1980s onwards, the basilica was restored and the pilgrimage resumed. As the unbolted bronze statue could never be found, a new statue of Mary Help of Christians was cast and installed atop the bell tower in the year 2000, restoring the shrine's emblematic silhouette.^[49]

Benedict XVI and the World Day of Prayer (24 May)

In 2007, in his Letter to the Catholics of China, Benedict XVI instituted a World Day of Prayer for the Church in China set on 24 May, the memorial of Mary Help of Christians, the day of the great Sheshan pilgrimage.^[50] For the occasion, he composed a Prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan:

"Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain the commitment of all those in China who, amid daily difficulties, continue to believe, to hope, to love, so that they may never fear to speak of Jesus to the world and of the world to Jesus." — Benedict XVI, Prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan, 2008^[51]

The political and ecclesial content of this letter, and the situation of the Catholic Church in China, are treated in the article The Church in Contemporary China.

The contemporary restrictions

Since 2008, the first anniversary of Benedict XVI's letter, the Shanghai authorities have restricted access to the shrine during the month of May, particularly for pilgrims from Hong Kong and the diaspora: bans on organised diocesan pilgrimages, identity checks, closure of the adjacent park.^[52] From 2020 onwards, the Covid-19 pandemic served as grounds for an almost total closure during the great 24 May gathering. The date instituted by Benedict XVI as World Day of Prayer is nevertheless celebrated throughout the world, wherever the physical pilgrimage to the top of Sheshan remains hindered.^[53]

The Sheshan shrine belongs to the great family of Marian shrines of Asia and the great centres of the Catholic mission in China. To place this place in its context, see:

• The Church in Contemporary China — the situation of Chinese Catholics, Benedict XVI's letter and the 24 May World Day of Prayer.
• The Jesuit Missions in China — from Matteo Ricci to the Jiangnan Jesuits, from whom the founders of Sheshan and its observatory came.
• The Chinese Rites Controversy — the historical background of Catholic inculturation in China.
• The Shrine of La Vang and the Shrine of Velankanni — two other great Marian shrines of Asia.