Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Hangzhou

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (圣母无原罪主教座堂) is a Roman Catholic cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

, located at 415 Zhongshan

Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...

Road North (中山北路415号) not far from Wulin Square (武林广场) in downtown Hangzhou

Hangzhou

Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. Since it is the only Catholic church currently in service within the city of Hangzhou itself, it is also known simply as Tiānzhǔ Táng (天主堂) or "the Catholic church".

Beginnings

Li Zhizao (李之藻) was a Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

official-scholar and Catholic from Hangzhou working in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, who had been converted and baptized by Matteo Ricci

Matteo Ricci

Matteo Ricci, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God....

. In 1611, when he received news of his father's death, he hurried back to Hangzhou and on the way brought with him two Jesuit priests from Nanjing

Nanjing

' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

, Lazaro Cattaneo and Nicolas Trigault

Nicolas Trigault

Nicolas Trigault was a Flemish Jesuit, and a missionary to China. He was also known by his latinised name Trigautius or Trigaultius, and his Chinese name Jīn Nígé .-Life and work:...

. They took care of Li Zhizao's father's funeral and on May the 8th at the Li family's residence held the first Mass

Mass (liturgy)

"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

ever in Hangzhou. One of the new converts in Hangzhou was a wealthy Imperial Inspector named Yang Tingyun (杨廷筠). He and his entire family were originally Buddhist, but upon his conversion he went so far as to turn his home's Buddhist altar into a chapel. Together, Li Zhizao, Yang Tingyun and Xu Guangqi

Xu Guangqi

Xu Guangqi , was a Chinese scholar-bureaucrat, agricultural scientist, astronomer, and mathematician in the Ming Dynasty. Xu was a colleague and collaborator of the Italian Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Sabatino de Ursis and they translated several classic Western texts into Chinese, including part of...

(of Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

) are known as the "Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism

Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism

Xǔ Guāngqǐ of Shanghai, and Lǐ Zhīzǎo and Yáng Tíngyún both of Hangzhou, are known as the Three Great Pillars of Chinese Catholicism . It is due to their combined efforts that Hangzhou and Shanghai became the centre of missionary activity in late Ming China...

" (三大柱石). Later in 1616, during a period of persecution against Christians in Nanjing, many refugees fled to Hangzhou where they were at first housed in the homes of Li Zhizao and Yang Tingyun. It was soon realized that a better solution would be required, and in 1627 Yang Tingyun bought a piece of land near Wulin Gate (武林门) on Guan Road (观巷) and had Hangzhou's first church built there, slightly west of where today's church lies. It was soon followed the next year by another church constructed near Qiantang Gate (钱塘门, once one of the 10 gates in the old city walls

Chinese city wall

Chinese city walls refer to civic defensive systems used to protect towns and cities in China in pre-modern times. The system consisted of walls, towers, and gates, which were often built to a uniform standard throughout the Empire....

of Hangzhou, located at the intersection of today's Hubin 湖滨 and Qingchun 庆春 roads). None of these two churches or the gates and city walls they once stood by remain today however.

The Cathedral

The current cathedral in Hangzhou, dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...

, was originally built in 1661 by the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

Jesuit Martino Martini

Martino Martini

Martino Martini was an Italian Jesuit missionary, cartographer and historian, mainly working on ancient Imperial China.-Early years:Martini was born in Trento, in the Bishopric of Trent...

, and is still one of the oldest churches in China. Its original Romanesque form was designed with three naves

Navès

Navès is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.-Geography:The Thoré forms most of the commune's north-eastern border, then flows into the Agout, which forms part of its northern border.-References:*...

, and two rows of columns separating them. The two side altars venerated statues of St. Peter and St. Paul while the central altar was for the worship of Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

. At the time of its completion it had been lavishly decorated and was said by many to be the most beautiful church in China. Of note were also the large frescoes painted all over the church, that as the Jesuit Charles Le Gobien

Charles Le Gobien

Charles Le Gobien was a French Jesuit writer, founder of the collection of Lettres édifiantes et curieuses. It is a major source of information for the history of Catholic missions.-Life:...

notes in his "Histoire de l'édit de l'empereur de la Chine", were based on standard Western imagery (the conversion of St. Paul, the conversion of the emperor Constantine, etc.), but were painted by Chinese artists in the Chinese brush style.

In 1691, during the reign of the Qing emperor Kangxi, the governor of Zhejiang Province, Zhāng Pénghé (张鹏翮) banned Catholicism, took control of the cathedral and ordered all books contained within to be burned. The following year, under pressure from the Italian Jesuit Prosper Intorcetta, the emperor lifted the ban and ordered the Hangzhou cathedral to be fully restored. Nevertheless, the church was severely damaged later that same year in a fire and remained unrepaired for many years until 1699, when the Kangxi emperor himself, who was on a tour of southern China, passed by the church. He ordered one of his ministers to go in and inspect the place, after which he decided to grant the church 200 silver tael

Tael

Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....

s to complete the repairs. He also had the two characters "敕建" (chìjiàn, "built by order of the emperor") inscribed upon the church gate.

In 1730, the emperor Yongzheng again forbade the practice of Catholicism, and the church edifice was subsequently converted into a Taoist temple by the name of Tiānhòu Gōng (天后宫, Temple of the Celestial Empress), but only after the emperor had chiseled his father Kangxi's "敕建" inscription off the gateway. Later, in 1848, it came into the possession of a group of English, Dutch, and French Lazarists

Lazarists

Congregation of the Mission is a vowed order of priests and brothers associated with the Vincentian Family, a loose federation of organizations who claim St. Vincent de Paul as their founder or Patron...

, whereupon it resumed operations as a Catholic church.

During the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

the cathedral was put to other uses for a period of about 12 years. The main church hall was divided into 10 or more smaller cells for imprisoning criminals. The other church buildings were also divided up as residences. Finally in 1982 the cathedral reopened, and on December 12 of that year, Mass was once again celebrated. By 1986 the all the families that had moved in during the Cultural Revolution were relocated off of the property. The cathedral is now protected as a Municipal Historic Site.

Mass

Chinese masses are held every Sunday morning. There is an English mass held on Saturday evenings. The church has two choirs which practice regularly, and also holds Bible studies and classes for catechumens.

Tomb of Martino Martini

Hangzhou is also home to the gravesite of Martino Martini. After the cathedral had just barely been completed, the renowned cartographer, historian, and missionary died suddenly of cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

in June of 1661, and was buried in the Dafangjing Jesuit Cemetery (大方井卫匡国等公墓) on the north side of Beigao Feng (北高峰). His remains were found to be undecayed as late as 20 years after his death, as attested by both Belgian Jesuit Philippe Couplet

Philippe Couplet

Philippe Couplet, also Philip Couplet or Philippus Couplet , was a Belgian Jesuit Father who was active in China in the 17th century. He was born in Mechelen, Spanish Netherlands ....

and Prosper Intorcetta, and they therefore became the object of great veneration. During the Cultural Revolution the site was completely destroyed, but was fully restored in 1985, although by that time it was no longer known which bones exactly had belonged to Martino Martini. The cemetery is now protected as a Provincial Historic Site.

The rectangular memorial crypt faces west and is preceded by a Chinese style "shendao" (神道) walkway and "pailou

Paifang

Paifang, also called pailou, is a traditional Chinese architectural gating style as an archway.The word paifang originally was a collective term used to describe the top two levels of administrative division and subdivisions of ancient Chinese city. The largest division within a city in ancient...

" (牌楼) gateway on which is inscribed in Chinese the line from the Apostles' Creed

Apostles' Creed

The Apostles' Creed , sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol"...

, "I believe in the resurrection of the body" (我信肉身之复活). It is located right next to the Xihu Beer Factory (西湖啤酒厂) on Xixi Road (西溪路) and can be entered by request.

Sisters of Charity Hospital

In the 1920s Hangzhou was also the object of some French missionary activity when a nun named Sister Hacard from the Sisters of Charity

Sisters of Charity

Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity as part of their name. The rule of Saint Vincent for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious orders around the world in the subsequent centuries....

began to build a hospital compound on Hangzhou's Daomao Road (刀茅巷). It was founded in 1922 and gradually added to until 1928. The site also included a Gothic-style

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

chapel which, with the one exception of a Marian statue it once contained, survived the Cultural Revolution remarkably intact, stained-glass windows and all. Sr. Hacard's hospital is now part of the Hangzhou City Red Cross Hospital that can be found enclosed by Daomao Road, Fengqi Road (凤起路), and East Huancheng Road (环城东路). While the hospital buildings are still in use as such, the chapel has not been used for religious purposes since before the Cultural Revolution and instead is now used by the hospital as a hall for giving presentations. A statue of Sr. Hacard has since been erected in the middle of a nearby garden and the chapel, being the only Gothic structure in all of Hangzhou, is today protected as a Provincial Historic Site.

Convent of the Sacred Heart

The Catholic Church in Hangzhou also includes a nuns' convent dedicated to the Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart

The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....