Our Lady
Our Lady of Sheshan
Title of the Blessed Virgin Mary · Feast May 24 · China (Sheshan, Shanghai)
Mary venerated at the hilltop basilica of Sheshan outside Shanghai under the title Help of Christians, and invoked by the whole Church on 24 May as the patroness of Catholics in China.
Origin
A Marian shrine was established in the nineteenth century on the hill of Sheshan, west of Shanghai, and grew into the great pilgrimage church that crowns the hill, where May has long been the month of pilgrimage. In his Letter to the Catholics of the People's Republic of China of 27 May 2007, Pope Benedict XVI asked that 24 May, the memorial of Our Lady Help of Christians who is venerated with great devotion at Sheshan, be kept each year as a day of prayer for the Church in China; he afterwards composed a prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan for that day.
Why it matters
The title binds Marian devotion to intercession for a suffering and divided local Church, and the annual day of prayer makes that intercession an act of the whole Catholic communion rather than of Chinese Catholics alone. The statue's own theology is exact: Mary's help is never independent of Christ, since what she lifts up for the world to see is the crucified Son.
Feast day
May 24
Region
China (Sheshan, Shanghai)
Iconography notes
The bronze figure on the basilica's tower shows Mary holding the Child above her head, his arms stretched wide so that his small body forms a cross against the sky — the Mother offering her Son, and the Son offering himself, in one image.
Aliases
Our Lady of Zose
Our Lady Help of Christians of Sheshan
Content subtype
devotional_title
Associated prayers
- hail-mary
- memorare
- sub-tuum-praesidium
- salve-regina