Donglü

Donglü (simplified Chinese: 东闾; traditional Chinese: 東閭; pinyin: Dōnglǘ), also written as Donglu,[1] is a village in Donglü Town (东闾镇), in Qingyuan District, Baoding, Hebei province, China.[2][3] It has become known for the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as Our Lady of China, witnessed there in 1900, and the Marian shrine and pilgrimage site which have since developed.[1]

Donglü
东闾村
Village
Donglü is located in Hebei
Donglü
Donglü
Location in Hebei
Coordinates: 38.684444°N 115.561666°E / 38.684444; 115.561666
CountryPeople's Republic of China
ProvinceHebei
Prefecture-level cityBaoding
DistrictQingyuan
TownDonglü Town (东闾镇)

Geography

Donglü is located about 140 kilometres south-west of the Chinese capital Beijing and about 20 kilometers to the southeast of Baoding, to which Qingyuan County administratively belongs.

Religion

In 2004 it was reported that as many as 7000 of Donglü's approximately 9000 residents are Catholic, giving the town probably a larger concentration of Catholics than any other place in China. The city is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baoding.

Donglü is home to a Gothic-style church originally constructed in the late 1880s and rebuilt in 1992 after being reduced to ruins in 1941 during the Second World War when it caught fire due to Japanese artillery bombardment. The structure is said to be large enough to hold several thousand people; local officials reportedly maintain that the church building is the largest in north China.

Our Lady of China

Donglü was the site of a Marian apparition in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. This apparition became known in Catholic devotion as Our Lady of China or Our Lady of Donglü. In the Catholic Church, Donglü was consecrated as the shrine for Our Lady of China in 1932 by Pope Pius XI. On May 23, 1995 an apparition of Mary took place, reportedly witnessed by over 30,000 pilgrims, and certified by the bishop of Baoding. Witnesses spoke of the sun spinning from left-to-right in the sky and giving off various colors. The phenomenon lasted approximately twenty minutes.

Recent events

Since the 1990s, multiple sources have reported that there have been several years in which pilgrimages to Donglü have been declared illegal by the government. Public security forces have been employed to attempt to prevent pilgrims from reaching the village or the shrine or to force those present to leave. In various incidents, multiple individuals have been arrested.[4][5][6]

Various leaders of the Baoding diocese in which Donglü falls have also been arrested and/or incarcerated. In April and May 1996, up to 5,000 troops were mobilized along with about 30 armored cars as well as helicopters in order to isolate the village. The statue of Mary at the shrine was reportedly confiscated.[4][5][6]

See also

References
  1. "When opium can be benign". The Economist. 1 February 2007. An apparition of Mary is said to have occurred in Donglu in 1900 when local Catholics were fighting off an assault by members of the fanatical Boxer cult trying to destroy their church. This has made the village a site of great devotion for Catholics.
  2. 2022年统计用区划代码和城乡划分代码：东闾镇 [2022 Statistical Area Numbers and Rural-Urban Area Numbers: Donglü Township] (in Chinese). National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China. 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2023. 130608109200 121 东闾村民委员会
  3. 东闾乡 [Donglü Township]. 行政区划网站 www.xzqh.org (in Chinese). 行政区划网站/区划地名网站 (Administrative Divisions Web/District Geographic Names Web). 7 September 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2018. 代码 130622205：～200东闾村{...}
  4. https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2014/03/25/chinas-modern-martyrs-from-mao-to-now-part-3/ Catholic World Report: China’s Modern Martyrs: From Mao to Now (Part 3), retrieved January 30th 2022
  5. http://cardinalkungfoundation.org/pr/pr1996-06-17.php Cardinal Kung foundation: Press Release - June 17, 1996, retrieved January 30th 2022
  6. https://www.hawaiicatholicherald.com/2019/05/29/our-lady-of-dong-lu/ Hawaii Catholic Herald. Our Lady of Dong Lu, retrieved January 30th 2022
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