At the southwestern foot of West Sheshan Mountain and on the former site of Xuanmiao Temple, there are a few buildings. Here lies Sheshan Monastery – a cradle of Catholic priests in China.
The monastery is well equipped and covers 8.1 hectares of land. Its building area is 6,000 square meters. The main buildings in the monastery adopted a style of the European Renaissance. The layout is reasonable and harmonious. The environment is quiet and tasteful.
The monastery admits aspirants who have received 2~3 years' training in liberal arts in the minor seminaries from all over the country, as students for priesthood. The courses in literature mainly include Chinese contemporary literature, Chinese modern literature, Chinese history, world history, politics and foreign languages.
The courses in philosophy mainly include church philosophy, history of Chinese philosophy, logistics, epistemology, cosmology, theory of human nature, philosophical anthropology, ethics, history of Western philosophy, and philosophical theology. The courses in theology mainly include Catholic theology, bibliology, dogmatic theology, ecclesiology, ethical theology, liturgical theology, fundamental theology, patrology, church history and spiritual theology.
Sheshan Monastery trains 160 five-year seminarians from East China each year. In the 1990s, it introduced subjects for 10-year seminarians. In addition, it also sends excellent seminarians to the United States, France, Germany and other Western countries for advanced study and training at the public expense. After graduation or returning to China, the seminarians will comply with national unified assignments and become high-level management personnel and professionals dedicated to religious activities in China.
