On 14 June 1924, Archbishop Celso Costantini, the Apostolic Delegate to China, climbed Sheshan Hill with twenty-five members of the first national Chinese synod. At the summit, on a wooded peak west of Shanghai where French Jesuits had been at work for sixty years, they consecrated China to the Virgin Mary under the title Mary, Help of Christians. The decree of Pius XI that had convoked them, Quod Te Delegimus, was not yet five months old.
What stands on the summit now went up between 1924 and 1935, after the Jesuits' first church on the peak was pulled down. It is a granite basilica on a Latin-cross plan, with a 38-metre bell tower at the south-east corner, and on top of the tower a 4.8-metre bronze Madonna and Child — the figure that gives the shrine its outline against the sky, visible from the roads of Songjiang below. A Jesuit astronomical observatory shares the summit with it.
Pilgrims climb through May, the Marian month, from the chapel halfway up the hill to the basilica at the top, praying the Stations of the Cross on the way. The largest gatherings fall on 24 May, the memorial of Mary, Help of Christians. Benedict XVI fixed that date in 2007 as a World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, and the year after composed a prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan for it, addressed to the statue on the tower: "In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high, offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love."
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
Sheshan Hill — Shéshān — sits in Songjiang District, on the western edge of the Shanghai municipality. The hill itself was a place of temples long before the Jesuits arrived. Its Catholic life began when French Jesuits bought land in the area in the early 1860s and built a sanitarium, a small church beside it, and a pavilion with a statue of Mary overlooking the slopes.
The founding vow belongs to the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864), the civil war that devastated much of eastern and southern China. Catholics in the Sheshan area pledged to construct a church dedicated to Mary if they were spared the chaos. The Jesuits began building on the hilltop in 1864. Fr. Léon Mariot (馬历耀, 1830–1902), a French Jesuit brother, designed the first church: wood shipped from Shanghai, stone bought from Fujian, all of it carried to the peak by hand. The building was in the form of a cross, with a veranda of ten columns outside the door and eight stone lions before it — Chinese features set into a Western plan. The church was dedicated in the early 1870s.
In 1894 the complex grew. A mid-level church was added — the Church of Our Lady of Mediatrix — together with shrines to the Sacred Heart, the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph, and the fourteen Stations of the Cross along the path climbing to the summit church. Between 1899 and 1901 the French Jesuits built an astronomical observatory on the top of the hill, with a telescope that Fr. Stanislas Chevalier (蔡尚質, 1852–1930) had purchased in France. The Sheshan Observatory stands beside the basilica.
The second church rose because the first had become too small. In 1920 the Shanghai Jesuits judged the 1860s building inadequate, lagging behind the city's newer churches in size and ornament. They turned to the Belgian missionary-architect Fr. Alphonse De Moerloose (和羹柏, 1858–1932), a key figure in the introduction of Western architecture to China, for the design of a monumental basilica. After the old church was demolished in 1923, the new basilica was built slowly between 1924 and 1935, under the daily supervision of the Portuguese Jesuit missionary-architect Fr. François-Xavier Diniz (葉肇昌, 1869–1943).
The national synod that fixed Sheshan's spiritual identity met in Shanghai in 1924. Pius XI's decree Quod Te Delegimus of 20 January 1924 appointed Archbishop Celso Benigno Luigi Costantini, the Apostolic Delegate to China, to convoke the first national synod of Chinese bishops. On 14 June 1924, in the context of the Catholic Synod of Shanghai, Costantini and twenty-five members of the synod climbed Sheshan Hill and solemnly consecrated China to the Virgin Mary under the title Mary, Help of Christians. From that act the shrine's identity as the national Marian shrine of China descends.
Pius XII raised the church to the rank of minor basilica with the decree Compertum Habemus, originally written on 24 July 1942 and officially signed and notarized on 12 September 1942. On 8 May 1946 Paul Yu Pin, Archbishop of Nanjing, solemnly crowned the Marian image. In 1947 the basilica was the site of a large ceremony declaring Mary Queen of China.
During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) the basilica and its surroundings were damaged, and the Madonna statue came down from the bell tower.
Catholics returned to the hill in the 1970s. In October 1979 a trend developed of Catholics visiting the site to witness Shengmu faguang — "light radiating from the Holy Mother." Researchers concluded the lights came from reflections off the observatory windows and the glazed tiles of the basilica roof, and an article published in January 1980 said so; publication of the debunking increased public interest in the phenomenon rather than dampening it.
After the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, the damage was gradually repaired. The statue was initially replaced with a simple iron cross; a new bronze statue of the Madonna and Child, 4.8 metres tall, was installed on the bell tower in 2000.
In his 2007 letter to the Catholics of China, Benedict XVI set 24 May — the liturgical memorial of Mary, Help of Christians — as a World Day of Prayer for the Church in China. He composed a prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan for it, published on 15 May 2008 to be prayed on the day itself. The prayer is addressed to the Virgin "venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title 'Help of Christians'," and it ends with the words: "Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen."
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Sheshan
Basilica of Our Lady of Sheshan
佘山進教之佑聖母大殿
The basilica occupies the summit of Sheshan Hill, about 35 km west of central Shanghai. A Latin cross in plan, 55.81 m long and 24.68 m wide, seating about 3,000, sheathed in granite, with a ceiling 16.46 m high and Chinese-style colour-glazed tiles on part of the roof. Entrances face north, west, and south, with the main door to the south-west. The altar stands at the east end, built of marble with gold trim and inlaid jade, enshrining the venerated image of Mary, Help of Christians, the patroness of the basilica. The architectural style is Romanesque.
The 38-metre bell tower stands at the south-east corner. At its top is the 4.8-metre bronze statue of the Madonna and Child, known as Our Lady of Sheshan. The first church on this site, built 1864–early 1870s to the design of the French Jesuit brother Léon Mariot, was a smaller cross-shaped building with a ten-column veranda and eight stone lions. It was demolished in 1923 and replaced by the present basilica, designed by the Belgian missionary-architect Fr. Alphonse De Moerloose and built 1924–1935 under the Portuguese Jesuit Fr. François-Xavier Diniz.
Mid-level Church of Our Lady of Mediatrix
佘山中山教堂
A chapel halfway up the hill, added in 1894 together with several ancillary buildings — shrines to the Sacred Heart, the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph, and the fourteen Stations of the Cross that line the pilgrim path from the mid-level church to the basilica above. The chapel is the lower station of the pilgrimage: pilgrims begin here, pray the Stations as they climb, and reach the basilica at the summit. The mid-level church was among the structures damaged during the Cultural Revolution and has since been repaired.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
May Pilgrimage — Month of Mary
In 1874 Pope Pius IX granted a plenary indulgence to pilgrims who visited Sheshan during May, the Marian month. From that decree the May pilgrimage began. Catholics from across China congregate on the hill through the month, with the largest gatherings around the memorial of Mary, Help of Christians on 24 May.
World Day of Prayer for the Church in China — 24 May
Established by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2007 letter to the Catholics of China and kept each year on 24 May. Catholics in China and around the world pray the prayer he composed to Our Lady of Sheshan, asking the Virgin "venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title 'Help of Christians'" to sustain "all those in China, who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love."
Feast of Mary, Help of Christians — 24 May
The patronal feast of the basilica, kept on 24 May in the Roman Rite. Benedict XVI chose this date for the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China because of the shrine's dedication, so the two fall together.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Le Méridien Shanghai, Minhang ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Hotel in the Minhang district, the closest major hotel cluster to Sheshan on the Shanghai metro network, about 20 minutes by car from the basilica. Reserve this hotel
Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Hotel in Pudong, on the east bank of the Huangpu, across the city from Sheshan. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Hotel built into an abandoned quarry near Sheshan in Songjiang, about 15 minutes' drive from the basilica, with an underwater restaurant and rooms overlooking the quarry lake. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
🚗 Getting There
By Air: Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA) are the city's two gateways. Hongqiao, the closer to Sheshan, lies about 25 km east of the basilica; Pudong is about 65 km east. Both connect to the city's metro system.
By Metro: Shanghai Metro Line 9 serves the Sheshan area. Ride to Sheshan Station (佘山站), then continue on foot or by taxi to the basilica entrance. Line 9 runs through to central Shanghai.
By Train: Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, on the national high-speed rail network, is the nearest major rail hub. High-speed services connect Hongqiao to Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and cities across the Yangtze Delta.
By Car: Sheshan lies about 35 km west of central Shanghai, in Songjiang District, reachable via the G50 (Chongqing–Shanghai Expressway) or the Huning Expressway. Parking is available near the entrance to the hill. The drive from central Shanghai takes about 45–60 minutes depending on traffic.
On Foot: The pilgrim path climbs Sheshan Hill from the mid-level Church of Our Lady of Mediatrix to the basilica on the summit, following the fourteen Stations of the Cross installed in 1894. The ascent is short but steep — a few hundred metres of stone steps through trees.
📚 Further Reading
Books:
Thomas Coomans. Notre-Dame de Sheshan à Shanghai, basilique des jésuites français en Chine — The leading architectural and historical study of the basilica, by the foremost scholar of the Jesuit-built churches of China. Published in Bulletin monumental, 176(2), 2018, pp. 129–156. (French)
Paul Philip Mariani. China's Church Divided: Bishop Louis Jin and the Post-Mao Catholic Revival — Harvard University Press, 2025. A history of the Chinese Catholic Church after Mao, with a sustained account of Sheshan's role in the revival of Catholic practice — including the 1979 Shengmu faguang episode and the return of pilgrims to the hill.
Thomas Coomans. Sheshan Marian Shrine in Shanghai: Architecture, Space, and Symbolism — Tongji University Press, 2023. The Chinese-language edition of Coomans's architectural study, with 287 figures tracing the shrine's building history and symbolism. (Chinese)
Online Resources:
Vatican: Prayer of Benedict XVI to Our Lady of Sheshan — The full text of the 2008 prayer, on the Vatican's own page.
Letter of Benedict XVI to the Church in China (2007) — The apostolic letter that established 24 May as the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China and set the shrine within the universal prayer of the Church.
Wikimedia Commons: She Shan Basilica — A gallery of photographs of the basilica, the mid-level chapel, and the interior.
🔗 Useful Links
GCatholic: Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians — The basilica's entry on GCatholic, with historical and canonical data.
Sheshan Observatory — The astronomical observatory the French Jesuits built beside the basilica in 1899–1901, now a branch of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Sanctuary of Our Lady of WuFongCi (699 km south) — Taiwan's principal Marian shrine, in Jiaoxi, Yilan County, born of a 1980 apparition to five Buddhist hikers, with a circular church modelled on Beijing's Temple of Heaven. Across the East China Sea.
Haemi (796 km north-east) — The Korean execution ground at Haemieupseong Fortress, where Catholics imprisoned in the persecution of 1866 were put to death.
Nagasaki (839 km east-north-east) — Japan's Catholic heartland, where 26 martyrs were crucified in 1597 and the Hidden Christians preserved the faith for 250 years.
Seoul (894 km north-east) — The Korean martyrs' shrines of Jeoldusan and Myeongdong Cathedral, marking a Church founded by lay believers who kept the faith under a century of persecution.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother, venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title 'Help of Christians', the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection. We come before you today to implore your protection. Look upon the People of God and, with a mother's care, guide them along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens."
— Pope Benedict XVI, Prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan, 15 May 2008