Father Joseph Liang, a chaplain at the Chinese Chaplaincy in east London, gives us a brief history of the Boxer Rebellion that took place at the turn of the 20th century, and explains why many Chinese Catholics have a strong devotion to Our Lady.
In April 1900, as the Boxer Rebellion – an officially supported peasant uprising – was sweeping through China, 10,000 “Boxers” attacked the village of Donglü, in the Hubei Province. The Christians of the village tried to repel the attackers – four times they attacked and four times they were driven back. The village priest, Father Wu, prayed to Our Lady asking for her help and protection. Suddenly a woman in white surrounded by light appeared in the sky – a beautiful apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Enraged, the soldiers fired into the sky but the apparition would not fade. Before they had time to reorganise a ‘fiery horseman’ believed to be Saint Michael, charged towards the soldiers. They scattered and fled. Father Wu told his flock that he had prayed to the Blessed Mother and she had saved them all.
The priest commissioned a painting of the Virgin Mary and the Child Christ dressed in golden Imperial robes. In Chinese culture, yellow is an Imperial colour so the image of the Blessed Virgin in the royal robes of the Empress with the Christ Child on her knee, is a vivid expression of the Chinese tradition.
The painting became the image of Our Lady of China – Queen of China.
In this video Fr Joseph Liang, chaplain at the Chinese Chaplaincy in east London, gives us a brief history of the Boxer Rebellion that took place at the turn of the 20th century, and explains why many Chinese Catholics have a strong devotion to Our Lady.
This video has subtitles.
We have produced a series of A4 PDF posters, that individuals or parishes can download, featuring Our Lady and the Child Jesus from a diverse cross-section of countries and cultures. Although by no means exhaustive, we hope this series highlights the rich diversity of our Catholic community and encourages reflection on how we are all made in the image of God. The posters also carry a prayer taken from Pope Francis’ document Fratelli Tutti. The posters are produced in English but, in some cases, where we have been able to, we have added a suitable translation.
