Holy Rosary Cathedral

About

Standing near the bank of the Love River in the centre of Kaohsiung, Holy Rosary Cathedral is the longest-established Catholic church in Taiwan. Its dedication to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary places it within a long Marian devotional tradition particularly cherished by the Dominican order, which brought the Catholic faith to the island in the nineteenth century.

The present neo-Gothic cathedral was completed in the mid-twentieth century, replacing earlier chapels on the site that traced their lineage to the original Spanish Dominican mission. Pointed arches, slender columns, and stained glass shape the worship space, while a statue of the Blessed Virgin holding the Holy Child crowns the central facade.

As the seat of the Archbishop of Kaohsiung, the cathedral serves as the principal gathering church for southern Taiwan's Catholic community. The daily Eucharist, the great feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, and the prayers of the Holy Rosary that give the church its name continue here without interruption, drawing both regular parishioners and pilgrims from across the country.

History

Spanish Dominican missionaries returned to Taiwan in 1859, and Father Fernando Sainz is credited with establishing the first church on this site in the same year, the earliest Catholic foundation on the island in the modern era. The mission grew through the following decades, with successive rebuildings reflecting the changing fortunes of the local church.

The present cathedral was constructed in the 1920s and dedicated as the mother church of Kaohsiung when the apostolic prefecture was raised to a diocese, and later to an archdiocese. The cathedral was named a historic site of Kaohsiung in recognition of its long witness to the Catholic faith in Taiwan.