FENYANG, Diocese of. — In northern China, in the civil province of Shansi. It was certainly established as an apostolic vicariate on 12 May 1926, with territory detached from the mission of Taiyuan and entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy; on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Taiyuan.
It has an area of 84,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of 2,100,000, it counted 1,500 Catholics. The missionary personnel, besides the bishop, consisted of 29 Chinese priests and 1 foreign priest. The minor seminary on site had 28 students; for higher studies the diocese made use of the regional seminary of Suanhua, entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy, where it had 7 theology students and 4 philosophy students.
From statistics of previous years, the auxiliary missionary personnel included 4 religious of the Congregation of the Little Brothers of St John the Baptist, about twenty catechists, and some fifty teachers. Ecclesiastically, the territory was divided into 5 districts and counted 18 main stations and 243 priests; it had 35 churches and 45 oratories or chapels. The 4 elementary schools and the 46 schools of doctrine and first elements had over 1,000 pupils. There were also 5 catechumenates, 2 orphanages, and 1 hospice for the elderly. The wars have dispersed the personnel and destroyed the works.
The mission, largely composed of neophytes, developed after the Boxer persecution (1900), during which, in the territory belonging to the diocese of F., the two bishops Gregorio Grassi and Francisco Fogolla (raised to the honor of the beatific on 24 November 1946) and the Chinese priests Pietro Chao, Paolo Kung, Pietro Lei, and Andrea Wang fell victim, along with numerous Christians.