Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Chengdu

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Chengdu
Ping'anqiao Catholic Church
The cathedral in 2013
Map
30°39′59″N 104°03′34″E / 30.66639°N 104.05944°E / 30.66639; 104.05944
Location25 Xihuamen Street, Qingyang District, Chengdu, Sichuan
CountryChina
DenominationRoman Catholic
History
StatusCathedral
Founded1897
Founder(s)Jacques-Victor-Marius Rouchouse
DedicationImmaculate Conception
Past bishop(s)Jacques-Victor-Marius Rouchouse
Henri-Marie-Ernest-Désiré Pinault
Architecture
Functional statusActive
StyleByzantine Revival;
Renaissance Revival;
traditional Sichuanese style
Groundbreaking1897
Completed1904
Administration
ArchdioceseChongqing
DioceseChengdu
Clergy
Bishop(s)Joseph Tang Yuange

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, commonly referred to as Ping'anqiao Catholic Church, is the Roman Catholic cathedral of the Diocese of Chengdu, situated on Xihuamen Street, Qingyang District, in Sichuan's capital city of Chengdu.[1] It has been subjected to the control of the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association since 1957.

Description

The construction of the cathedral started in 1897, under the supervision of Jacques-Victor-Marius Rouchouse, a French missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and the first bishop of the Diocese of Chengdu, who was appointed to supervise the work by Bishop Marie-Julien Dunand. It was not completed until 1904.[2][3] The English political economist Audrey Donnithorne was baptized at this cathedral after converting from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1943.[4]

The buildings, including the cathedral, the Bishop's Office, and the Episcopal Residence, cover an area of 16,566.3 square meters and have a usable area of 8,508.5 square meters. Built in a cruciform design with a façade of neo-Byzantine style, the cathedral and its surrounding buildings constitute the Chinese character "悚" meaning "fear", representing "The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord" (Proverbs 9:10). The right part of the character means "rule", which represents the function of this building as a cathedral, as Jesus said in the Gospel: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18).[5][6]

Mass times

English Mass is celebrated on Saturdays at 4:00pm. Service in the local language is held on Sundays, starting at the same hour.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Ping'anqiao Catholic Church". chengdu-expat.com. Archived from the original on November 20, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  2. ^ Wang, Anming (October 18, 2020). "中西合璧的代表性建筑——天主教成都教区主教公署" [A representative building of the combination of Chinese and Western architectural styles: the Episcopal See of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chengdu]. thepaper.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on November 20, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  3. ^ "Diocese of Chengdu". ucanews.com. Archived from the original on November 20, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  4. ^ Wang, Teresa (June 10, 2020). "四川：天主教南充教区为董育德教授举行隆重追思弥撒" [Sichuan: Solemn Memorial Mass for Professor Audrey Donnithorne Held in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nanchong]. Faith Weekly (in Simplified Chinese). Shijiazhuang. Archived from the original on November 18, 2022. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
  5. ^ Doris (January 2020). "平安橋天主堂─東方建築與西方宗教的魔幻交融" [Ping'anqiao Catholic Church: The Magical Fusion of Eastern Architecture and Western Religion]. 旅讀中國 [OR China] (in Traditional Chinese). Taipei: Cheer Link Development Limited Taiwan Branch. Archived from the original on November 18, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  6. ^ "Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Chengdu". mzzj.chengdu.gov.cn. August 26, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2022.[permanent dead link‍]