KANCHOW [GANZHOU], Diocese of. - In China, in the southern part of Kiangsi. Erected as an apostolic vicariate on 25 Aug. 1920, by division of the apostolic vicariate of Southern Kiangsi, today Kian (v.), it remained entrusted, like the mother mission, to the Congregation of the Mission, which sends there the Lazarists of its eastern province of the United States; on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese suffragan of Nanchang.
It has an area of 38,609 sq. km.; as of 30 June 1948, out of a population of about 2,000,000 inhabitants, the Catholics numbered 15,681 and the catechumens 72. Besides the bishop, there were 18 Lazarist priests, of whom 11 were Americans, and 16 Chinese secular priests; 6 students were studying in the local minor seminary and 1 in the major seminary of Kian. Among the auxiliary personnel were counted 30 Chinese sisters and 6 Americans: 38 catechists, 53 teachers, 21 baptizers, 4 doctors and 39 nurses. The territory, divided into 4 districts, had 18 primary stations and 220 secondary ones, 14 churches and 43 chapels. The works consisted of 2 hospitals with 84 beds, 12 medical dispensaries, 1 orphanage with 365 inmates and 2 homes for the aged with 24 residents. The 9 elementary schools gathered 1008 children, the 2 vocational schools 47 pupils and the 23 of prayer and first elements 481 listeners.
The Christian origins of this territory are common to those of the entire civil province of Kiangsi and in particular to those of the mother mission Kian (v.): toward the middle of the 17th century the region of K. was visited by the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Jesuits. The Jesuit father Giacomo Le Favre built a church in K.
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Adamo Pucci