HAIPHONG, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF
On 13 December 1924 the ancient name of Eastern Tonkin was changed to the current one. Located in northeastern Tonkin, it comprises the civil provinces of Haiduong, Kien-An, Quang-Yen, Haininh or Moncay. In the territory of the province of Kien-An lies the city of Haiphong, which is the port of all Tonkin.
Almost all the inhabitants of this vicariate are of Annamite stock, which probably traces its origin to the tribe called Giao-Chi, descended from the mountains of Tibet and settled in northern Tonkin in the 4th or 5th century B.C. There are also other peoples called Tho and Man who inhabit the mountainous part of the mission, having migrated here from the Celestial Empire. Both the Annamites and the Tho and Man worship heaven and invisible spirits and especially heroes and the souls of ancestors. The religious history of this mission began in 1627 with the arrival of Fr. Alessandro de Rhodes, a Frenchman, and Fr. Antonio Márquez, a Portuguese. Subsequently, despite almost continuous persecutions, missionaries were never lacking in this region and there were numerous conversions. From 1862 to the present the mission has been able to prosper peacefully.
It has an area of 10,000 sq. km. with a population of 1,700,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,600,000 are pagans, 100 Jews, and 200 Protestants. The Catholics number 125,566 with 3,256 catechumens. There are 86 Annamite priests and 23 foreign priests; 8 indigenous brothers and 4 foreign brothers; 154 indigenous sisters and 11 foreign sisters; 43 catechists; 45 minor and 14 major seminarians; 13 districts; 55 main stations and 490 secondary ones, 23 churches and 300 chapels; 668 male and 561 female teachers; 114 elementary schools with 3,452 male and 727 female pupils; a school for catechists with 27 pupils; 7 hospitals with 722 beds; 15 orphanages with 3,228 orphans; two homes for the elderly with 452 residents; a printing press from which a periodical entitled *Hy-Vong* is issued with a circulation of 1,200 copies. The mission is entrusted to the Dominicans of the Province of the Most Holy Rosary in the Philippine Islands. The residence of the Ordinary is in the city of Haiphong.