Our Lady of China, Covid-19, the Legion of Mary in China

Our Lady of China

With the inscription: Mother of God, pray for us

Someone sent me this photo back in April, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and expressing a desire that we should pray for the people of China, where the virus began in Wuhan.

That city is a conglomeration of three cities: Wuchang, Hankow and Hanyang.

When the first group of Columban priests, including our Co-founder Fr Edward Galvin, travelled to China in 1920 some went to Hanyang. In 1927 Fr Galvin was ordained as the first bishop of what was then the Vicariate Apostolic of Hanyang. It became a diocese in 1946.

Bishop Edward Galvin and Fr John Blowick

Co-founders of the Columbans (mid-1950s)

Bishop Galvin lived through wars and natural calamities, serving the people of his diocese with one desire: to do God's will. He was expelled from the People's Republic of China in 1952. In a report he wrote that year he stated the reasons the authorities gave for this.

You have opposed and obstructed the establishment of an Independent Church in China. You have brought into being a reactionary organisation called the Legion of Mary. You have engaged in anti-patriotic propaganda against the government. You have destroyed the property of the people.

Archbishop Antonio Riberi, appointed Apostolic Internuncio to China in 1946, asked the Columbans the following year if Fr Aedan McGrath could be his delegate to travel through China establishing the Legion of Mary. Father Aedan had been involved with the Legion for quite some time by then with the encouragement of Bishop Galvin.

In his book The Splendid Cause, a history of the Missionary Society of St Columban, my fellow Columban priest Fr Neil Collins writes about the experience of a young Irish Columban priest, Fr Oliver Whyte, newly-arrived in China in 1947 in a place called Nanzin where he began the first praesidium of the Legion of Mary in the district. Three other praesidia followed, in Huchow city, Songlin and Sinkadhay. Members of a legion praesidium undertake apostolic work, especially visitation of hospitals, prisons, hostels for down-and-outs, and private homes. Whyte asked the Nanzin legionaries to visit lax Christians, and to instruct house-bound catechumens. All the members of his praesidium were illiterate, except one lady who had to act as both president and secretary. Perhaps the greatest  fruit of the Legion was the effects on the members themselves. Through involvement in the apostolate of the church, study of the Legion handbook, the discipline of a weekly meeting, and prayer, they become so committed that most could resist all communist pressure and indoctrination.

[The basic unit of the Legion of Mary is known by the Latin word 'praesidium', the plural of which is 'praesidia'.]

In The Splendid Cause, Fr Neil Collins tells us, A Campaign of newspaper attacks began in June 1951, with bitter articles on the 'imperialists' in the church. Chief of these was the papal internuncio, Riberi, but the Legion of Mary was also mentioned. Riberi was expelled on 4 September 1951. Two days later Aedan McGrath whom Riberi had appointed in 1948 to organise the Legion throughout China, was arrested. The Chinese government officially suppressed the Legion on 7 October 1951.

I doubt that the authorities in the People's Republic of China were aware that 7 October was the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.

Madonna del Rosario

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

The Splendid Cause then quotes Columban Fr John C. Casey: The next day the secret police, dressed in black uniforms or in mufti arrived . . . From now on the destruction of the Legion of Mary was the immediate target . . . Beating them, roping them halfway to jail were common methods used in the attempt to break them down . . . This went on for over six months . . . Yet not one of them broke down . . . and in the end the Communists had to admit that they were beaten.

Fr Casey along with three other Columbans, Frs Owen O'Kane, Patrick Reilly and Patrick Ronan, were arrested in June 1952 and imprisoned for 17 months. and expelled 'eternally' from China on 28 November 1953. They became known to the Columbans as 'The Four Felons'. You can read about them here. Several members of the Legion of Mary were arrested along with the four priests but there are no records of what became of them.

L to R: Frs Patrick Reilly, Owen O'Kane, John C. Casey, Patrick Ronan

'The Four Felons' after their expulsion from China.

Fr Aedan McGrath was released on 2 May 1954 after nearly three years in solitary confinement and spent the rest of his long life working with the Legion of Mary, especially in the Pacific region. I came to know him very well in the Philippines. He died suddenly at a family gathering on Christmas Day 2000 at the age of 94. I witnessed something quite extraordinary at his funeral, which I wrote about in A Heavenly Farewell. There's a video version of the article that includes the brief video of Father Aedan himself below.

Fr Aedan McGrath talks about his only friend in prison in China

Fr Aedan NcGrath with St John Paul II

Fr Neil Collins ends his section in The Splendid Cause on the work of Columbans in China with this paragraph.

The small group of Columbans in Huchow, 1946-53, trained no students for the priesthood, and their ministry in the district might seem to have been fruitless. But the most striking achievement was the formation, in a very short time - Casey's praesidium existed for only two years - of several remarkable praesidia of the Legion of Mary. The communists searched for members of the Legion who would make accusations against McGrath or the other priests and found none. When Oliver Whyte returned to Nanzin fifty years later he found a healthy church, and one faithful parishioner was the lady who had been the president of the praesidium.

Legion of Mary Tessera

Leaflet with the Prayers of the Legion of Mary

I know very little about the particular image of Our Lady of China that was sent me. Googling will show many other images of Our Lady of China but not this one.

The whole world has been affected this year by Covid-19 that originated in Wuhan in an area with which the Columbans and the Legion of Mary have close connections. But the Church in China has grown in recent decades despite many hardships. I have met young priests and religious from China who joyfully live their faith and that gives me great hope.

May Our Lady of China obtain God's choicest blessings on the people of China, on the Legion of Mary and on Columban missionaries.

'But the spiritual edifice is, I think, intact.' Sunday Reflections, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

High Altar and baldachin

Archbasilica of St John Lateran [Wikipedia]

The Cathedral of Rome, the 'Mother of all Churches'

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 21:5-19 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)  

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’

They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.

‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Earthquake destroys Basilica of St Benedict on 30 October 2016

Norcia (or Nursia) is the place where St Benedict was born c.480

This Sunday falls between two celebrations of church buildings in Rome, the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica on 9 November and the Optional Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul on 18 November. When the former falls on a Sunday its celebration takes precedence over the Sunday. The official name of the Lateran Basicilica is the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist. It is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, sometimes referred to as 'Mother of all Churches'.

In the gospel Jesus speaks of the future destruction of the Temple where he had worshipped all his life, where he had been presented to the Father as an infant by Mary and Joseph, from which he threw the moneylenders because they were turning it into a market.

On 30 October 2016 the Basilica of St Benedict in his birthplace Norcia in Italy was destroyed in seconds by a powerful earthquake as if fulfilling the words of Jesus today, all will be thrown down.

Destroyed Basilica of St Benedict [Source:The Monks of Norcia]

Jesus warns us in today's gospel warns us of wars and insurrections . . . great earthquakes . . . famine and plagues . . . You will be hated by all because of my name.

We are seeing all of these things in our time. They can lead us to lose hope - if we forget the closing words of Jesus in today's gospel: But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

On 4 October 2016 Hurricane Matthew caused great destruction in southwestern Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. But Sunday Examiner, the weekly English-language newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, carried the following report in its issue for 30 October 2016.

Port-au-Prince. Survivors of Hurricane Matthew put on their Sunday finest as they picked their way through rubble and downed power lines to gather in ruined churches on October 9, just three days after the devastating storm ravaged their homes. 

Photographs posted on news websites show pews in the open air, with the rubble from the hurricane piled to one side, as a neatly clad congregation in suits and ties, smart slacks and dresses made a colourful scene in what had once been churches with roofs.

Grave of Bishop Edward Galvin

St Columban's, Dalgan Park, Ireland

'But the spiritual edifice is, I think, intact.'

After being expelled from China, September 1952

In the January/February 2006 issue of Far East, Fr Dan Fitzgerald recalled the following of Bishop Edward Galvin (Co-founder of the Columbans with Fr John Blowick):

Bishop Galvin was my bishop in China for six years. Three of us Columban priests arrived in Hanyang in central Chine in July 1946. We were the first Irish priests to arrive there after the war had ended in 1945.

The man we met on that July day looked older and more worn than his 64 years would suggest. He didn't look like a bishop either. He was in an old crumpled cotton Chinese shirt and pants, with perspiration running down his face and chest. Only for the plain episcopal ring he had on his finger, he might have been the gate-man. There was something about him that suggested one who had lived through a lot, had suffered and had survived.

His exile for Christ ended in September 1952. As he arrived in Hong Kong he said, They have taken our churches, schools, hospital and mission compounds, but the spiritual edifice is, I think, intact. I blessed the compound and the cathedral, the whole diocese, its Sisters, priests and people. I put then under the protection of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, and of St Columban, the patron of the diocese and the cathedral. It was all I could do, but it was enough.

Fr Daniel Fitzgerald

(1916 - 2016)

Prayer for the Dead for November

Choral arrangement by John Cameron to Nimrod from Enigma Variations by Sir Edward Elgar, sung by Voces8

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,

cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, 

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord,

with Thy saints forever, for Thou art kind.

Eternal rest give to them, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them.

World Day of the Poor

The first World Day of the Poor, an initiative of Pope Francis, took place in 2017. This Sunday is the third World Day of the Poor and the theme of the Pope's message for the day is The Hope of the ooor shall not perish for ever.

A concert with the poor and for the poor will take place in Paul VI Hall in the Vatican to mark the day. After the concert those present will share in a meal. Nicola Piovani will conduct the Orchestra of Italian cinema in Paul VI Hall. The musicians will play excerpts from Roberto Benigni’s film Life Is Beautiful, for which he received an Oscar in 1999 in the best film category. Here is the main theme from that film for which Nicola Piovani composed the music and received an Oscar.