Our Lady of Zoce
by Zsolt Aradi
Perhaps no people on Earth have treasured tradition and family life as deeply as the Chinese. Despite the vastness of the country and its occasional provincial wars, the sense of family and family tradition whereby, as the Chinese poet says, "my cottage becomes a universe" kept China intact for thousands of years. In the social structure the priest and the learned man stood higher than the soldier. The mercenary who had to kill received the very last place in those elaborate ceremonies, which did not become obsolete until the twentieth century. In spite of their indifference to military pursuits, no invader survived his invasion of China. The Chinese way of life, without being organized on strict pacifist principles, simply swallowed up and at times transformed their conquerors.
The ancient Chinese way of life had many Christian features. However, the Chinese conception of man as a being who fulfills his duty merely by existence, regardless of his own personal determination, is not a Christian one.
The points of contact between Christianity and Chinese tradition were recognized immediately by Matteo Ricci, the learned Jesuit who became a mandarin and whose conduct was sharply scrutinized by the watchful Chinese, to test the values of his ideas and principles. Father Ricci observed how the Chinese sense of tradition and of the family made it easy for them to grasp the meaning of the religion of love.
When Western man and his ideas started to reach China in great numbers, the behavior of some of the Western representatives did not live up to either the ideals of Christianity or the Chinese ethic. It was a great burden upon many saintly missionaries to explain why they themselves were both humanitarian and loving, while many followers of this same religion of love killed and ravaged their fellow men with incessant fury throughout the world.
Furthermore, many of those from the Western world considered China merely as a place for easy exploitation. They were indifferent to the traditional life and manners of the Chinese. They were not interested in trying to understand the apparent contradictions in Chinese life. Even wiser heads were puzzled in finding poverty, an almost occult mysticism and superstition side by side with wisdom, tolerance, love of science and art.
Thus Christianity did not make quick headway; but where it was accepted, the effect was profound and deep roots were set. And it is of particular significance that the cult of the Madonna grew faster and was more fully understood by the Chinese than by any other people. Dr. John C. H. Wu, the famous convert and former minister to the Vatican, remarked once that the Chinese people would not have been able to understand how the Son could be honored as God, and the Mother not honored at all. So the cult of the Madonna, which was brought to China as an integral part of Catholic religion fell on fertile soil and produced beautiful flowers. We cannot say how widely the cult of the Madonna became known or practiced in that immense country of five hundred million people; yet there is strong evidence that almost every family knows about her.
In the course of years, the missionaries in China began to retreat from a purely Western approach and to understand more fully many almost Christian values in the native culture. Catholicism was integrated with the Chinese system. The results were extraordinary. The social, humanitarian work of the missions and the effective educational effort helped to enliven the great spiritual values of the people instead of suppressing them. The College of Cardinals today has a Chinese member; there are many Chinese Bishops and thousands of Chinese priests. The ideas of Confucius and the veneration of the ancestors are considered by the Church as part of the national and philosophical patrimony of China and in no way incompatible with the practice of Catholicism. In fact these traditions lead to a deeper understanding of Christianity and the veneration of the Mother whose Son is the salvation of individuals, nations, and the whole world.
There are two shrines in China dedicated to the Holy Mother, which we consider most noteworthy. The first of these is set upon a hill near Shanghai in the vicinity of the ruins of a former Buddhist monastery. The monastery was dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy and the legend says that in ancient times one of the Buddhist monks, a very saintly person, walked around the immediate vicinity with two tigers who harmed no one and ate out of his hands. It was here that the Jesuit missionary, Father Della Corte, built his modest little shrine adorned with a picture of Mary, Help of Christians. This shrine is the shrine of "Our Lady Zoce," named after the hill Zoce, which in turn comes from a General Zo who was an officer of one of the ancient dynasties. Zo owned part of the hill and is buried on it.
Thus, we come to the year 1870. The little Catholic chapel had been dedicated only two years before, but it was already threatened by destruction. At this time the provinces of Kiang-su and Anhwei, within which territory Zoce belonged, had some fifty million inhabitants, including about ninety thousand Christians. A great army of bandits had run wild and threatened Christians and natives alike, but since minorities are always more likely to be exposed to any kind of danger, the little Catholic group at Zoce expected annihilation. A tremendous storm neared Shanghai, bringing floods. The situation became more tense. The bandit army grouped around Shanghai was reported to have moved against Zoce, defying the elements. But the attack never came. The floodwaters suddenly receded and the threatening horde of bandits evaporated into the human ocean of the countless Chinese millions.
The Jesuit Father in Zoce and his flock attributed to Our Lady, to whom they had never ceased to pray, the fact that Zoce was saved. And because the Father promised to build a church dedicated to Mary in case their prayers be answered, the little flock immediately started to fulfill the promise. In May 1873, the first pilgrimage took place with the participation of twenty thousand followers, Christian and Buddhist alike. In a short time Zoce became nationally known and the Mother whose Son is God was honored by millions. China went through tremendous upheavals during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The celestial Empire became a republic. Millions perished through the ravages of war and others because of the endless famines. The country was divided, invaded, and its social structure shaken from top to bottom. During all these years, the motherly authority of Mary grew. The City Council of Shanghai, composed of Christians and Buddhists, dedicated China to the Holy Virgin under the title of Our Lady of Zoce.
How deep the cult of the Madonna is at present can be deduced from various facts. China was one of the first non-Christian countries in the twentieth century to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See; many a great Chinese intellectual came into the Church through her help. One of them, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, became a Benedictine monk about fifteen years ago. When the Communists came to power, they declared war on a very peaceful organization called the Legion of Mary. They knew very well that this legion, though without guns and devoted to peace, was very powerful. Indeed, the deep-rooted cult of the Madonna among Christian and non-Christian remained so strong that Communist authorities realized the uselessness of their attempts and for a time permitted pilgrimages to the shrine of Zoce. At the present, it is uncertain whether or not the Basilica is still open to the faithful and, in the month of May 1953, 1,500 communions were distributed at the Basilica daily. On the campanile of the Basilica, there is a statue of Our Lady of Zoce, presenting the child Jesus to China and to the world. The blessing of her outstretched arms may bring fruit and blossom and permanent peace only in the distant future. But it is a miracle that though no weapon is at her disposal, she remains inviolate in the midst of slaughter.
This item 3171 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
