Haiphong, Apostolic Vicariate of

HAIPHONG, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - On 13 Dec. 1924 the ancient name of Eastern Tonkin was changed to the present one. Located in north-eastern Tonkin, it comprises the civil provinces: Haiduong, Kien-An, Quang-Yen, Haininh or Moncay. Within the territory of the province of Kien-An is the city of H., which is the port of all Tonkin.

Almost all the inhabitants of this vicariate are of Annamite stock, which traces its origin, probably, 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 other peoples called Tho and Man who live in the mountainous part of the mission, having moved here from the Celestial Empire. Both the Annamites and the Tho and Man worship heaven and the invisible spirits and especially the heroes and the souls of the ancestors. The religious history of this mission begins in 1627 with the coming of Fr. Alexandre de Rhodes, a Frenchman, and Fr. Antonio Márquez, a Portuguese. Subsequently, despite almost uninterrupted persecutions, missionaries were never lacking in this region and the conversions were numerous. 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, 200 Protestants. Catholics number 125,566 with 3236 catechumens. There are 86 Annamite priests and 23 foreign; 8 native brothers and 4 foreign; 154 native sisters and 11 foreign; 434 catechists; 45 minor and 14 major seminarians; 13 districts; 55 principal and 490 secondary stations, 233 churches and 300 chapels; 668 male and 561 female teachers; 114 elementary schools with 3452 male and 727 female pupils; a school for catechists with 27 pupils; 7 hospitals with 722 beds; 15 orphanages with 3228 orphans; two homes for the aged with 452 residents; a printing press from which is published a periodical entitled Hy-Vong with a circulation of 1200 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 H.

Edoardo Pecoraro