Jingyi Church

Jingyi Church
Native name Chinese: 敬一堂, 老天主堂
Type	Catholic Church
Location	Shanghai, China
Built	1640

Jingyi Church (敬一堂), formerly known as Ever-Spring Hall (世春堂), and commonly referred to as The Old Catholic Church (老天主堂) or formerly The Church of the Savior in English, was the first Catholic Church in Shanghai, China, having been built in 1640 in the Ming Dynasty, located on current the grounds of the Fuyou Road No.1 Elementary School, in the Old City, Huangpu District, Shanghai. It currently is one of the oldest buildings still standing in Shanghai. The building was various a private Chinese residence, a Catholic church, a Taoist temple, and an elementary school throughout its history. The church had a thriving congregation of parishioners up until 1950s, when its religious activities were ceased after the Chinese Communist Revolution. Since then, its buildings had undergone many uses, including serving as an elementary school. The buildings are currently closed to visitors as they are under the threat of collapse.

The church building was built a private residence in 1553 by the Shanghai-raised governor of Sichuan Pan Yunduan (潘允端), a governor of Sichuan, for his father Pan En (潘恩), named the Ever-Spring Hall (世春堂) . Pan Yunduan also constructed the nearby famous Yu Garden in Shanghai for his father, and these buildings are all found in the same complex which was formerly the Pan family estate. Due to the decline of the Pan family, the hall was sold off to another family, the Fan (范) family.

in 1640, the building was purchased by Martina Pan, the granddaughter of Xu Guangqi, one of the early influential Shanghai Catholic converts, for the sake of Fr. Francesco Brancati (潘国光), an Italian Jesuit missionary, and converted into a church. At this time the building's name was changed to Jingyi Church (敬一堂), meaning "Hall of the Only Respected". It was called The Church of the Savior in English. At that time men and women were not allowed to attend mass at the same place, so women attended at the Church of Our Lady near Xujiazui. A side hall for astronomical observations were added and the church became a center for Catholicism in Shanghai.

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