FOOCHOW, ARCHDIOCESE OF. — The civil province of Fukien, in central-eastern China, was, like the rest of the Empire, under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the diocese of Macao until 10 April 1920, when the dioceses of Peking and Nanking were established and Fukien was assigned to the latter. With the erection of apostolic vicariates in China (15 October 1969), the apostolic vicariate of Fukien was established, which, in addition to this region, included the civil provinces of Chekiang and Kwangsi. On 14 August 1838, after these provinces were detached and erected into an autonomous apostolic vicariate, the boundaries were reduced to those of the civil province of the same name. Even thus restricted, the vicariate underwent a first division on 3 December 1883, giving rise to the mission of Amoy and taking for itself the name of the apostolic vicariate of Northern Fukien. This lasted until 27 December 1923, when it was further divided to create the missions of Funing and Tingchow, and was renamed the apostolic vicariate of Foochow.
Further divisions followed on 18 July 1929 with the erection of the mission of Shaowu and on 6 May 1931 with the erection of the mission of Kienning, now Kienow.
On 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, the ecclesiastical province of Fukien was erected, with Foochow as its metropolitan archiepiscopal see and the suffragan sees of Amoy and Funing. On 8 May 1947, the see of Tingchow was added, elevated on that day to a diocese. The apostolic prefectures of Shaowu and Kienow, as elsewhere, remain directly dependent on the Holy See.
From 1659 to 1662, Fukien was administered by Msgr. Lambert de la Motte, apostolic vicar of Cochin-China, and from 1680 to 1684 by Msgr. Pallu, founder, with the aforementioned, of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. From 1684 to 1708, the same society was represented by Msgr. Carlo Maigrot, first as administrator and then, from 1696, as the first apostolic vicar. From 1708, with the appointment of the Dominican Ventallol, who was never consecrated bishop, and who in 1740 was succeeded by his confrere Pietro Sanz, Fukien remained entrusted to the Dominicans of the Province of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines, who still govern the archdiocese of Foochow. The Jesuits, however, continued their apostolate in the region until their suppression, after which their residences passed to the Dominicans by decisions of Propaganda on 30 January 1779 and 20 February 1801. The Paris Missionaries left the area in 1838, when they were entrusted with the apostolic vicariate of Leatung (Manchuria).
Within its current boundaries, the archdiocese of Foochow covers an area of 26,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1948, the total population was estimated at about 4,000,000, of whom 39,046 were Catholics, 4,414 catechumens, and about 30,000 Protestants, the remainder being pagans. In addition to the archbishop, there were 22 foreign Dominican religious priests and 27 Chinese secular priests. The minor seminary had 21 students, while the regional seminary for all of Fukien, based in Foochow, had 9 seminarians. Among auxiliary personnel, there were 100 catechists, 90 teachers, and 1 physician. The territory was divided into 7 districts with 29 primary stations and 82 secondary ones, 26 churches, and 87 oratories or chapels. Among the institutions were 4 hospitals with 80 beds, 5 dispensaries which in the 1947–48 period had recorded 38,211 consultations, 5 orphanages with 665 residents, and 2 old people’s homes with 92 inmates. The 4 elementary schools had a total of 772 pupils, while the middle school had 323.
The origins of Christianity in Fukien are attributed to the Franciscans, who at the beginning of the 14th century had a Franciscan bishop in Zaitong, now Changchow, in the present diocese of Amoy. After the expulsion of the Mongols, the new Ming dynasty closed the Empire to foreigners. In 1555, the Dominican Baldassarre della Croce exercised fruitful ministry but was later expelled; the same fate befell the Dominicans Giovanni de Castro and Michele Benedi in 1590. In 1625, the Jesuit Giulio Aleni founded a mission in Foochow and others in Yenping, Shaowu, and Tingchow. By 1671, the Jesuits counted 3,700 Christians in Fukien: 2,000 in Foochow, 200 in Yenping, 500 in Tingchow, 400 in Shaowu, and 200 in Kienning. In 1631, Fr. Angelo Cocchi, a Dominican from the convent of Fiesole and a member of the Province of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines, arrived in Foochow as a legate of the King of Spain. Driven out by the viceroy, he retreated to the city of Fuan, in the present diocese of Yuning, where he found 10 Christians and died two years later. In Fuan, Blessed Francesco de Capillas was martyred in 1643, and in 1747, Blessed Pietro Sanz, apostolic vicar succeeding Ventallol, was martyred in Foochow, along with his coadjutor Blessed Francesco Serrano and the missionaries Alcober, Diaz, and Royo.