The Virgin is Attacked in China, 1900

Join John Carpenter, Don Hartley, and the Deeper Truth research team as they investigate another amazing appearance by our Blessed Mother in China.

In 1900, 10,000 troops of the Chinese anti-foreign, anti-Christian Boxer movement threatened to annihilate the inhabitants of the humble village of Dong Lu in China’s Hebei province. Dong Lu was a poor place, called the village of beggars. It consisted of a small community of Catholics. As the Boxers approached, the village priest Father Wu prayed to the Blessed Mother to intercede on behalf of the village. Our Lady, dressed in white, appeared in the sky with a fiery horseman believed to be St. Michael. The Boxers shot at the image, but it remained intact. Terrified, the Boxers fled, sparing the village.

In thanksgiving, Father Wu commissioned an artist to paint an image of the Madonna dressed in the royal robes of a Chinese dowager empress with a Christ Child on her knee. The image became known as Our Lady of Dong Lu, commemorating the victory over the Boxer assault. The regal appearance of Mary was meant to convey her intercessory power and queenship.

Our Lady of Dong Lu could be considered the Chinese version of Our Lady of Guadalupe. While not a miraculous portrait like that of the Mexican Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Dong Lu portrays Mary and the Christ Child as Chinese, reinforcing the undeniable truth that Catholicism is as much a part of China as it is in every other part of the world.

Through the decades, pilgrims have joined processions in Dong Lu led by the image of Our Lady of Dong Lu. In May 23, 1995, 30,000 Catholics had gathered for Mass celebrated by four underground bishops at the Dong Lu shrine. During the consecration, those gathered witnessed the sun spinning from left to right and the Lady of China and the Christ Child appearing in the sky. The next day, May 24, 100,000 worshipers arrived at the Dong Lu shrine,