KIANGCHOW, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF
In the southern part of the civil province of Shansi, in northern China. It was erected on 25 May 1936, by division of the Apostolic Vicariate of Luanfu (v. LAON) and entrusted, like the mother mission, to the Order of Friars Minor, which sends its fathers from the regular province of Holland for missionary work. As an Apostolic Prefecture, it depends directly on the Holy See.
It covers an area of approximately 20,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, with a total population of approximately 2,000,000 inhabitants, there were 7,500 Catholics; 14 Franciscan fathers, of whom 7 were Chinese; 7 foreign sisters and 7 Chinese sisters. The mission has 2 philosophy students at the regional seminary in Taiyuan.
The Christian origins of the mission date back to the first decades of the 17th century through the work of the Jesuits, whose fathers Giacomo Rho and Alfonso Vagnoni preached in the city and territory of K. The Franciscans then extended evangelization to other civil districts, including that of Luan. Various persecutions caused numerous victims among the faithful. The disturbances of recent years have suspended the works of the mission and caused some victims among the missionaries; the Apostolic Prefect himself, taken by bandits, was for some time believed to be dead.