FOOCHOW, ARCHDIOCESE of. - The civil province of Fukien, in east-central China, ecclesiastically included, like all the rest of the Empire, in the diocese of Macao, when the dioceses of Peking and Nanking were established on 10 Apr. 1690, was assigned to the latter. With the erection of the apostolic vicariates in China (15 Oct. 1696), the apostolic vicariate of Fukien originated; in addition to this region, it comprised the civil provinces of Chekiang and Kwangsi, and on 14 Aug. 1838, when these provinces were detached and erected into autonomous apostolic vicariates, it 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 remained so until 27 Dec. 1923, when it was further divided in order to establish the missions of Funing and Tingchow, and was named the apostolic vicariate of F. It underwent further 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 establishment 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; on 8 May 1947 the see of Tingshow was added, having been raised to a diocese on that day. The apostolic prefectures of Shaowu and Kienow, here as elsewhere, remain directly dependent upon the Holy See.
From 1659 to 1662 Fukien was entrusted to the administration of Msgr. Lambert de la Motte, apostolic vicar of Cochinchina, and from 1680 to 1684 to Msgr. Pallu, founder, together with the aforementioned prelate, of the Society of the Foreign Missions of Paris; from 1684 until 1708 there was Msgr. Carlo Maigrot, 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 who in 1740 was succeeded by his confrere Pietro Sanz, Fukien remained entrusted to the Preachers of the province of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines, who still govern the archdiocese of F. The Jesuits, whose residences, after their suppression, passed to the Dominicans by decisions of Propaganda dated 30 Jan. 1779 and 20 Feb. 1801, nevertheless continued their apostolate in the region; so too did the Missionaries of Paris, who left the area in 1838, when the apostolic vicariate of Lesotung (Manchuria) was entrusted to them.
Within its present boundaries, the archdiocese of F. has an area of 26,000 sq. km. On 30 June 1948 the total population was estimated at approximately 4,000,000 inhabitants, including 39,016 Catholics, 4,411 catechumens, and about 30,000 Protestants; the remainder were pagans. In addition to the archbishop, there were 22 foreign Dominican religious priests and 27 Chinese secular priests. Twenty-one pupils were studying in the minor seminary; in the regional seminary, for all Fukien and located at F., the arch-
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diocese had 9 seminarians. Among the auxiliary personnel there were 109 catechists, 90 teachers, and 1 physician. The territory was divided into 7 districts, with 29 principal stations and 82 secondary ones, 26 churches, and 82 oratories or chapels. Its institutions included 4 hospitals with 80 beds, 5 dispensaries which in the 1947–48 financial year had provided 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, and the secondary 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. After the Mongols had been expelled, the new Ming dynasty closed the Empire to foreigners. In 1555 the Dominican Baldassarre della Croce was there and fruitfully exercised his ministry, but was subsequently 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 later 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 Fr. Angelo Cocchi, a Dominican of the convent of Fiesole, a convent affiliated with the province of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines, arrived at F. as legate of the king of Spain; expelled by the viceroy, he went back 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 Blessed Francesco de Capillas was martyred in 1643; and Blessed Pietro Sanz, apostolic vicar who had succeeded Ventallol, was seized, partly at Fuan and partly at Mayang, and martyred at F. in 1747; in 1748, Blessed Francesco Serrano, coadjutor of Sanz, and the missionaries Alcober, Diaz, and Royo were likewise martyred.