ASIA/CHINA - Pilgrimage: Catholics of Tangshan make a pilgrimage to the place of work of the Blessed Franciscan missionary sister Maria Assunta Pallotta

Tangshan (Agenzia Fides) - The Catholic community of Tangshan (Hebei province) has been celebrating a special period since January 1, 2024, the "Year of Evangelization", with prayers, liturgies and catechesis aimed at awakening passion for the proclamation of the Gospel in baptized Catholics.
Between the end of May and the beginning of June, the community made a Marian pilgrimage, which also gave participants the opportunity to learn about the testimony and holiness of Sister Maria Assunta Pallotta, a Franciscan missionary nun beatified by Pope Pius XII in 1954.

On May 31, the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, according to the Chinese Catholic news portal xinde.org, the parishes of Tangshan organized a Marian pilgrimage from the Shrine of Mount Bansishan to the Shrine of Dongergou, known as the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows, on the outskirts of the Archdiocese of Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province. This shrine houses another church with a history of over 300 years, as well as the museum and residence of Blessed Maria Assunta Pallotta, a nun of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary (FMM). The interaction between faith and local tradition here is the result of the continuous witness of local Catholics over the centuries, as well as the works that the Lord has done among them.
The Catholics from the parishes of Tangshan prayed the Stations of the Cross together as they climbed the mountain. In the shrine itself, they prayed the Rosary and participated in a common mass.
Maria Assunta Pallotta (FMM) was born on August 20, 1878 in Force (Marche region, Italy) and was sent to China as a missionary around 1903, and received the blessing of Saint Pope Pius X. In June 1904, she arrived with other sisters in Dongergou, a small town in Shanxi. She began working as a cook in the orphanage. After only a year, she died in 1905 at the age of 27 during the typhus epidemic that raged in the province and claimed several orphans and four nuns. Her death was accompanied by astonishing signs: twenty minutes before her death, a mysterious scent flooded the rooms where she had lived. For this reason, Sister Maria Assunta is known in China as the "Saint of Perfumes". She was beatified by Pius XII on November 7, 1954. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides, 5/6/2024)

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