Wanjin Basilica of The Immaculate Conception, located in Pingtung County’s Wanluan Township, has been the place to visit during the Christmas season over the last few years. Since 2011, Pingtung County government has worked with the church on various activities over the period, including a nativity scene contest, the Virgin Mary parade, and a Christmas Carol singing activity.
This year, just as the Christmas festivities were about to begin, the council of neighboring Jhutian Township discovered the site of the Gouzihcian Chapel, what was long ago a way station on the road to the Basilica.
When the Spanish Dominican missionary Fernando Sainz first determined to establish his mission in Wanjin, it would often take him more than a day traveling from Kaohsiung to the village, and so decided to set up a chapel in the small aboriginal community of Gouzihcian, between Wandan and Jhutian. In 1864, Sainz sent some missionaries to the area to assess the lay of the land, and they rented premises in Gouzihcian for a makeshift chapel and started their missionary work there. By 1869, the congregation in the area numbered around 100, and when Ramon Colomer was stationed there, he formally started work building a concrete chapel.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者邱芷柔攝
In the initial stages, the missionaries’ presence there led to armed clashes, and in 1893 non-converted locals set fire to the chapel and burned it down. This was the end of the Gouzihcian Chapel, but you can still see broken fragments from the original site in the Wanjin Basilica, where they are being conserved.
(Translated by Paul Cooper)
位於屏東萬巒鄉的萬金聖母聖殿，近年成為耶誕季最夯的必訪景點之一。屏東縣政府從二○一一年開始，與萬金聖母聖殿合作，結合聖母聖殿耶誕節期間的馬槽裝置比賽、聖母遊行、報佳音等活動。萬巒鄉隔壁的竹田鄉公所，則意外在今年耶誕節前夕，發現早年萬金聖母聖殿的中繼站「溝仔墘小聖堂」遺址。
郭德剛神父決意要到萬金開教後，因從高雄到萬金的路程，往往要花上一天時間，所以就計畫在萬丹與竹田間的小部落「溝仔墘」建立小聖堂。一八六四年郭神父派傳教士到當地調查民情，並在溝仔墘租屋設臨時聖堂後開始傳教，一八六九年溝仔墘教友已有近百人，當時由李嘉祿神父駐守在溝仔墘，並開始建造正式的混泥土小聖堂。
由於傳教初期歷經多次械鬥，一八九三年教外民眾放火燒毀聖堂後，「溝仔墘」小堂區從此消失，目前萬金聖母聖殿裡還保存著當時聖堂內破碎的瓷片。
（自由時報）
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