KANCHOW, DIOCESI of. — In China, in the southern part of Kiangsi. Erected as an apostolic vicariate on 25 August 1920, through the division of the apostolic vicariate of southern Kiangsi, 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 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Nanchang.
It has an area of 38,609 sq. km.; as of 30 June 1948, out of a population of approximately 2,000,000 inhabitants, the Catholics
numbered 15,681 and the catechumens 72. In addition to the bishop, there were 18 Lazarist priests, 11 of them American, and 16 Chinese secular priests; 6 students were studying in the local minor seminary and 1 in the major seminary of Kian. The auxiliary personnel included 30 Chinese nuns 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 stations, 14 churches, and 43 chapels. Its institutions consisted of 2 hospitals with 84 beds, 12 medical dispensaries, 1 orphanage with 365 residents, and 2 homes for the elderly with 24 residents. The 9 elementary schools had 1,008 children, the 2 vocational schools 47 students, and the 23 schools of prayer and elementary instruction 481 pupils.
The Christian origins of this territory are shared with those of the entire civil province of Kiangsi and, in particular, with those 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 Fr. Giacomo Le Favre built a church in K.