Our Lady Queen of China Catholic Cathedral, Tainan, Taiwan, China

The Cathedral of Our Lady of China is located in Tainan city, Taiwan and serves as the cathedral for the Diocese of Tainan, Taiwan. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the venerated title of Our Lady of China. The design of the church is a palatial Chinese architecture. During the Boxer Rebellion, a great number of soldiers attacked the village of Donglü, Hebei. The village consisted of a small community of Christians founded by the Vincentian Order of priests. Pious legends claim that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in white, and a fiery horseman (believed to be Saint Michael the Archangel) who chased away the soldiers.

The local priest, Father Rene Flament of the Congregation of the Mission hired a local French painter in Shanghai to make a Marian statue similar to the Chinese dowager Empress Ci Xi. This image was based in the Marian image of “Our Lady of Laeken” venerated in the Church of Our Lady of Laeken in Brussels, Belgium. The Donglu statue was later destroyed in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution. Accordingly, Donglu became a place of pilgrimage in 1924. The image was blessed and promulgated by Pope Pius XI in 1928.  At the close of the 1924 Shanghai Synod of Bishops in China, the first national conference of bishops in the country, the Apostolic Chancellor, Cardinal Celso Costantini as the Apostolic Delegate in China, along with all the bishops of China, consecrated the Chinese people to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Pius XII designated the feast day as an official feast of the Catholic liturgical calendar in 1941.

In 1973, the Chinese Bishops’ conference, upon approval from the Holy See, placed the feast day on the vigil (day preceding) of Mothers Day (the second Sunday of May). In 1989, a painted canvas of the same Madonna with Child Jesus dressed in golden imperial robes was recreated, now enshrined at the altar of the “Our Lady of Donglu” parish.

In 1976, another statue was reconstructed in Taiwan now venerated in the “National Shrine of Our Lady of China”, which was constructed in 1913. In 2020, the now Archbishop of Taipei, Thomas Chung An-Zu requested a formal coronation for the Marian image, which was granted and merited a decree of pontifical coronation from Pope Francis on 19 February 2021. The official decree was released to the Taiwanese media on 2 March 2021. The image was crowned on 14 August 2022.

Another namesake Marian Catholic parish is located in the #367 Jong—Zheng road of Xindian District in New Taipei, with a significant influx of both Taiwanese aboriginal and Vietnamese Marian devotees. An image of the Madonna and child as Queen of China (Latin: Regina Sinarum) displayed at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. In 22 January 1982, an American shrine dedicated to the namesake Marian title was erected in Rockville, Maryland, United States under the auspices of the former Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal James Aloysius Hickey. The Catholic shrine serves as a pastoral mission to the Chinese peoples. The cathedral is dedicated to the Marian apparition of Our Lady of China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.