St. Joseph's Cathedral is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

located in

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

, China. It was completed in 1876, shut down during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, and re-opened in 1980. The cathedral is located at 16 Shanghai Road, Wuhan.

Architecture

According to the government of Hubei, the cathedral building is a

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

two-story structure made of timber and brick. Its total length is and total width is . Its main hall is wide. On each side at the rear of the cathedral, there is a dome-shaped

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

. The cross at the top of the cathedral stands high from the ground. The building area of the cathedral is . It has five altars and can accommodate over 1,000 people.

History

Construction

In 1862, Eustache Modeste Zanoli (Chinese name: ), then

vicar apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

of Hubei, moved the bishop's seat from

Yingcheng Yingcheng () is a county-level city of about 500,000 inhabitants in Xiaogan, eastern Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among C ...

Wuchang Wuchang is one of 13 urban District (China), districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the right (southea ...

. In 1866, he bought a section of marshland within the English concession of

Hankou Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers w ...

and turned it suitable for future constructions. In 1875, Zanoli commissioned the Italian missionary Angelus Vaudagna to build St. Joseph's Cathedral. The cathedral was completed in 1876 and costed 120,000 francs.

World War II

On 18 January 1938, during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

, a memorial mass to mourn the soldiers and civilians killed and to pray for world peace. About 2,000 Chinese and foreign expatriates attended, including

K. C. Wu K. C. Wu (; October 21, 1903 – June 6, 1984) was a Chinese political figure and historian. Among other offices, he served as Mayor of Shanghai and as Chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government. Early life Wu was born in Jianshi County, H ...

. The church building was damaged in the 1944

Operation Matterhorn Operation Matterhorn was a military operation of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in World War II for strategic bombing of Japan by Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers based in India, Ceylon, and China. Targets included industrial fac ...

air raid, and underwent reparation in 1948 and 1956.

People's Republic of China

In April 1958, Bernardine Dong Guangqing (), a priest of the cathedral, was elected bishop of Hankou. He was the first bishop in China to be elected based on the self-election, self-consecration principle ( zh, s = 自选自圣).

Union of Catholic Asian News The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) is a news agency that covers issues and matters of interest for the Catholic Church on the Asian continent. It was launched in Hong Kong in 1979. Since its foundation, it has become one of the largest Cat ...

reported that the diocese asked for the approval of the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

before the ordination, but the Holy See declined, citing canon law that any ordination of bishops without papal mandate incurs automatic excommunication, with power reserved to the Holy See. The cathedral was shut down during the

and re-opened in 1980.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

recognized Dong as bishop of Hankou in 1984. In May 2007, the funeral of Dong took place at the cathedral, with Bishop John Huo Cheng presiding.

Vatican Radio Vatican Radio (; ) is the official broadcasting service of Vatican City. Established in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave, DRM, medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet. ...

reported that over a thousand people attended the funeral. In September 2021, Francis Cui Qingqi () was consecrated bishop at the cathedral.

Joseph Ma Yinglin Joseph Ma Yinglin (Chinese: 馬英林; born 1965) is the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association-sponsored Bishop of the diocese of Kunming, China. He was consecration, consecrated a bishop on 30 April 2006, at age 41. The diocese had been vacant f ...

(), bishop of

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

, led the consecration ceremony.

Religious services

The church offers masses throughout the week. At 7:00 am on the first Saturday of each month, the cathedral offers the

Traditional Latin Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or ''usus antiquior'' (), Vetus Ordo or the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in 1 ...

, which is relatively uncommon among Chinese churches.

References

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Joseph's Cathedral, Wuhan Roman Catholic cathedrals in China Churches in Wuhan 1876 establishments in China 1876 in Wuhan