Catholic South Church

Catholic South Church

Catholic South Church is a cultural heritage site protected by Henan Province.

Catholic South Church

Era: 1924–1948

Address: No. 34, Zhongshan South Second Street, Suiyang District, Shangqiu City

On February 16, 1924, Spanish priest Chen Mingli arrived in Shangqiu from Kaifeng and established the Diocese of Shangqiu at No. 27, Zhongshan South Second Street (Pingdong Fifth Street), within the Shangqiu county town. Later, churches were successively built in Yucheng, Ningling, Zhuxi, Xiayi, and Yongcheng. Alongside the church establishments, the diocese also opened an orphanage, male and female seminaries, a clinic, and Guangqi Primary School in the county town.

With the development of missionary activities, Shangqiu County became the center of ecclesiastical operations and the cathedral church of the Catholic Diocese of Shangqiu. The cathedral served as the bishop’s church—the main place where the bishop and priests conducted worship and religious duties. In addition to managing the spiritual life of local believers, several priests were stationed at the cathedral to handle diocesan affairs. In terms of scale and clergy numbers, it was the largest among all Catholic churches in the diocese and functioned as the core institution for ecclesiastical, administrative, diplomatic, and economic matters across the region.

Through continuous construction, the Shangqiu Cathedral grew into a sizable and well-equipped facility. By 1949, it covered an area of 14 mu and comprised 210 brick-and-tile buildings. The cathedral grounds were divided into five relatively independent courtyards: The first courtyard was used for temporary accommodation and medical services for visiting parishioners. The second courtyard housed the priests’ building, large and small auditoriums, and several single-story houses, serving as spaces for the bishop and priests to conduct ecclesiastical work, worship, sermons, prayers, and residence. The third courtyard included one building and several single-story houses, functioning as the living and training quarters for monks (men who had taken monastic vows), known as the junior seminary or male seminary. The fourth courtyard contained a building and some single-story houses, serving as the residence and training place for nuns (women who had taken monastic vows), referred to as the nunnery. The fifth courtyard was the orphanage, dedicated to sheltering and raising abandoned baby girls (infants); baby boys were sent to the government-run orphanage. Since its establishment, the orphanage took in 500 abandoned baby girls. As a charitable institution of the diocese, some of the girls later got married, while others attended the female seminary and became nuns.

These five courtyards covered a total floor area of 5,000 square meters, forming a self-contained, functionally distinct, and efficiently planned system within the cathedral grounds, with no mutual interference and clear hierarchical organization. It once provided an ideal setting for the spread of Catholicism in Shangqiu.

In July 2002, the Catholic South Church in Shangqiu was designated as a municipal-level key cultural heritage site.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Cultural Heritage Sites Protected by Henan Province