Foochow [Fuzhou], Archdiocese of

FOOCHOW [FUZHOU], ARCHDIOCESE OF. - The civil province of Fukien, in central-eastern China, was included ecclesiastically, like the rest of the Empire, in the diocese of Macao, when on 10 Apr. 1690 the dioceses of Peking and Nanking were founded, it was assigned to the latter. With the erection of the apostolic vicariates in China (15 Oct. 1696) the apostolic vicariate of Fukien came into being which, besides this region, comprised the civil provinces of Chekiang and Kwangsi, and which on 14 Aug. 1838, those provinces having been detached and erected into an autonomous apostolic vicariate, was reduced to the boundaries of the civil province of the same name. Even thus restricted, the vicariate underwent a first division on 3 Dec. 1883, giving rise to the mission of Amoy and taking for itself the name of apostolic vicariate of Northern Fukien. This lasted until 27 Dec. 1923, when it was further divided to give life to the missions of Funing and Tingchow and took the name of apostolic vicariate of F. It underwent new divisions on 18 July 1929 for the erection of the mission of Shaowu and on 6 May 1931 for the erection of the mission of Kienning, now Kienow.

On 11 Apr. 1946, with the institution of the episcopal hierarchy in China, the ecclesiastical province of Fukien was also erected with F. as metropolitan archiepiscopal see and with the suffragan episcopal sees of Amoy and Funing, to which on 8 May 1947 the see of Tingshow was also added, elevated on that day to a diocese. The apostolic prefectures of Shaowu and Kienow, here as elsewhere, remain directly dependent on the Holy See.

From 1659 to 1662 Fukien was given in administration to Msgr. Lambert de la Motte, apostolic vicar of Cochinchina, and from 1680 to 1684 to Msgr. Pallu, founder, together with the aforementioned, of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris; from 1684, then, to 1708 Msgr. Carlo Maigrot was there, of the same society, first as administrator and then from 1696 as first apostolic vicar. From 1708, with the appointment of the Dominican Ventallol, who was never consecrated bishop and was succeeded in 1740 by his confrere Pietro Sanz, Fukien remained entrusted to the Preachers of the province of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines, who govern the archdiocese of F. even at present. Nevertheless both the Jesuits continued their apostolate in the region, whose residences, after their suppression, passed to the Dominicans by decisions of Propaganda of 30 Jan. 1779 and 20 Febr. 1801; and the Missionaries of Paris, who left the place in 1838, when the apostolic vicariate of Lesotung (Manchuria) was entrusted to them.

Within its present boundaries the archdiocese of F. has an extent of 26,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1948 the total population was computed at about 4,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 39,016 Catholics, 4,411 catechumens and about 30,000 Protestants, the rest pagans. Besides the archbishop, there were 22 foreign Dominican religious priests and 27 Chinese secular priests. In the minor seminary 21 students were studying; in the regional one, for all of Fukien and which has its seat at F., the archdiocese had 9 seminarians. Among the auxiliary personnel were counted 109 catechists, 90 teachers and 1 doctor. The territory was divided into 7 districts with 29 primary and 82 secondary stations, 26 churches and 82 oratories or chapels. Among the works were 4 hospitals with 80 beds, 5 clinics which in the year 1947-48 had given 38,211 consultations, 5 orphanages with 665 inmates and 2 homes for the aged with 92 residents. The 4 elementary schools had a total of 772 pupils, the middle school 323.

The Christian origins in Fukien are due to the Franciscans, who at the beginning of the 14th century had one of their religious as bishop at Zaitong, now Changchow, in the present diocese of Amoy. Having driven out the Mongols, the new Ming dynasty closed the Empire to foreigners. In 1555 the Dominican Baldassarre della Croce was there, who exercised his ministry fruitfully, but was then expelled: the same fate befell the Dominicans Giovanni de Castro and Michele Benevides in 1590. In 1625 the Jesuit Giulio Aleni founded a mission at F. and then others at Yenping, Shaowu and Tingchow. In 1671 the Jesuits counted 3,700 Christians in Fukien, namely: 2,000 at F., 200 at Yenping, 900 at Tingchow, 400 at Shaowu and 200 at Kienning. In 1631 there arrived at F., as legate of the king of Spain, Fr. Angelo Cocchi, a Dominican of the convent of Fiesole, a convent affiliated with the province of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines; driven out by the viceroy, he returned to the city of Fuan, in the present diocese of Funing, where he found 10 Christians and where he died two years later. Also at Fuan the blessed Francesco de Capillas was martyred in 1643, and there were taken, partly at Fuan and partly at Mayang, and martyred at F. in 1747, the blessed Pietro Sanz, apostolic vicar who succeeded Ventallol, in 1748 the blessed Francesco Serrano, coadjutor of Sanz, and the missionaries Alcober, Diaz and Royo.

Adamo Pucci