CHANGSHA, ARCIDIOCESI di. — Mission entrusted to the Italian Franciscans in China, in the province of Hunan. Its area is 22,820 sq km; the population is just over 5 million. In the territory, evangelical preaching dates back to the second half of the seventeenth century. In 1856 the province of Hunan, detached from Hupeh, was established as a mission in its own right and entrusted to the Franciscans; in 1879, when it was divided into two missions, southern and northern Hunan, Changsha remained the residence of southern Hunan. After the uprising of 1900, the works revived and the Christian community was reconstituted, though it suffered severe setbacks following the war with Japan. Nevertheless, the work never ceased, and the mission gave rise to further dependencies: Yungchow-fu in 1925, Hengchow in 1930, and Siangtan in 1938, all entrusted to the Franciscans.
From 11 April 1946, C. was raised to an archdiocese and metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of Hunan, currently with 3 suffragan dioceses: Changteh, Hengchow, and Yuanling. On 30 June 1948, the missionary personnel of C. consisted of 16 Italian fathers, 2 Germans, 1 Yugoslav, and 5 Chinese secular priests. The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary numbered 13, of whom 5 were Chinese; the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate numbered 9, all Chinese. There were 54 catechists, 78 teachers, 12 doctors employed by the mission, and 15 nurses. The schools comprised 10 primary schools with 759 pupils and 2 secondary schools with 157 students. Charitable institutions: 2 hospitals, 10 dispensaries, 2 orphanages, and 2 homes for the elderly. On the same date, Catholics numbered 9081 and catechumens 1038; Protestants in the mission numbered approximately 6000.
