The Donglü sun miracle: some 30,000 underground Catholics see the sun spin at the shrine of Our Lady of China

Donglü is a Catholic village in Qingyuan, Baoding prefecture, Hebei. In 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, hostile forces surrounded it. The pastor, Father Wu, prayed to Mary. Witnesses recounted that a beautiful lady, recognised as Mary, appeared in the skies. The soldiers fired at the sky. Then they fled.

The church built in thanksgiving received a painting of Mary and the Christ Child. In 1924 the Shanghai synod named it Our Lady of China. The Japanese destroyed the shrine in 1941. It was rebuilt between 1989 and 1992 and dedicated to Mary Help of Christians.

Tuesday, May 23, 1995. The vigil of the feast. Underground Catholics held Mass in an open field. Four bishops concelebrated with nearly 100 priests. The Cardinal Kung Foundation reported about 30,000 people present.

At the opening prayer, and again at the consecration, the congregation and most of the concelebrants watched the sun in motion. It was spinning. One account says right to left, another left to right. All agree it changed colours. Light rays of various shades seemed to stream from the sky. The sun appeared to approach, then retreat. Observers said they could look straight at it without blinking. It lasted about 20 minutes.

Then came the figures. The Cross. The Holy Family. Mary with the Infant Jesus. The Sacred Host. People cried out for forgiveness. Others shouted and applauded with joy as the colours changed.

One villager, interviewed years later under the pseudonym Xiao Dan, remembered it this way: "The sun came out of the clouds and began to spin like a screw and to change colour." The clouds, she said, opened into the shape of a lady all in white.

On May 24, about 100,000 people came despite police blocks. Police forced people back into buses and trains without offering any explanation. In 1996 an official announcement forbade anyone from going to the shrine. It was an illegal gathering, the authorities said, and bad for social stability. Accounts describe up to 5,000 troops, about 30 armoured cars and helicopters. Su Zhimin, the underground bishop of Baoding, was detained. The shrine was destroyed.

No scientific study and no Church inquiry is on record. The local priest, Father Lu Zhi Zhong, told the Portuguese agency Lusa that the account is not reliable. Two young Catholics said they saw nothing. Sceptics of sun miracles in general point to the eye itself. The physicist Auguste Meessen argued that afterimages and the bleaching of retinal cells after staring at the sun produce dancing and colour changes. Yet Meessen stressed that no one can provide direct evidence for or against a supernatural origin. No one has tested his ideas at Donglü.

Catholic writers now compare Donglü to Fatima. Every May, pilgrims still try to reach the village. Every May, police seal the road.