HENGHOW, DIOCESE OF. - In the civil province of Hunan, in central China, it was erected as an apostolic vicariate, with territory detached from the mission of Changsha, on 23 July 1930, and entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor, who sent Italian religious from various regional provinces for missionary work; on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese, a suffragan of Changsha.
It covers an area of 17,000 sq. km. As of June 1949, out of a total population of approximately 3,000,000 inhabitants, there were 11,912 Catholics and 485 catechumens; apart from about 2,000 Protestants, the rest were pagans. The missionary personnel, in addition to the bishop, consisted of 11 Chinese secular priests and 12 Franciscan religious priests, of whom 4 were Chinese. The students of the preparatory seminary numbered 30, and those of the minor seminary 14. There were 25 Chinese and 3 Italian sisters; 33 catechists, 85 teachers, and 51 baptizers. The territory was divided into 4 deaneries with 15 primary stations and 66 secondary ones, 15 churches, and 54 chapels. The works included 1 hospital with 110 beds, 6 medical dispensaries, 1 orphanage with 85 girls, 1 hospice for the elderly with 30 residents. The elementary schools had 663 pupils, the single middle school 496, and the 11 prayer and elementary schools 486.
The territory of the mission of H. is that which preserves the most memories of Christian preaching in the civil province of Hunan: the Jesuits passed through in the 17th century; at H. the blessed John Lantrua of Triora was imprisoned in 1816, later strangled at Changsha; there Father Michael Navarro resided first as pro-vicar of the apostolic vicariate of Hukwang and then as the first apostolic vicar (1856-77) of the vicariate of Hunan, which had its seat on the hill of Huangshawan, near H., also sanctified by the residence of the three martyrs of 1900: Fontosati, Cesidio, and Gambaro. When, in 1879, the Augustinian Hermits took charge of the apostolic vicariate of northern Hunan, now partly the diocese of Changtseh (q.v.), they found only one missionary center at Kiakai-tse, consisting of 45 Christians originally from H.