LANCHOW, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - In north-western China. Erected under the name of Apostolic Vicariate of Kansu on 21 June 1878, by division of the Apostolic Vicariate of Shensi, and entrusted to the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Scheut), whose missionaries, given the impossibility of defining more precisely the boundaries, had to respect the jurisdiction of missions already assigned to other institutes; on 28 April 1905 it took the name of Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Kansu and ceded the eastern part to give rise to the so-called Apostolic Prefecture of Southern Kansu (a geographically inexact term), also entrusted to the Scheut Congregation. On 8 March 1922, these two Kansu missions and the neighbouring one of Ili (or Chinese Turkestan) were suppressed, and their entire territory was divided into two distinct ecclesiastical circumscriptions: 1) the Apostolic Vicariate of Western Kansu, which included this part of Kansu proper, the territory of the suppressed mission of Ili, and the territory of Alashan, then belonging to south-western Mongolia and now to the civil province of Ningxia: all of this was entrusted to the Society of the Divine Word; 2) the Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Kansu, comprising the territory of the suppressed Apostolic Prefecture of Southern Kansu and entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins. On 3 December 1924 the first took the name of Apostolic Vicariate of L. (from the city where the ordinary resided), the other Tsinchow (v.). On 14 February 1930 the new civil province of Sinkiang was detached from L. and erected into a mission *sui iuris* (v. SINKIANG); on 4 March 1937 the civil province of Chinghai was detached and erected SIMONIA (v.). On 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, L. was raised to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese of the ecclesiastical province of Kansu, with the diocese of Tsinchow as suffragan, to which was added on 24 June 1950 Pingliang (v.).
It has an area of 250,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1949, out of a population of 4,000,000 inhabitants, there were 17,117 Catholics and 682 catechumens; 8,000 Protestants and 1,000,000 Muslims, the rest pagans. Besides the archbishop, there were 38 Verbite Fathers, of whom Chinese, and 11 secular priests, of whom 10 Chinese and 1 German. The minor seminary had 21 students and the regional seminary, with its seat in L., had 28. Auxiliary personnel numbered 14 lay religious, 86 sisters, of whom 58 Chinese, 40 catechists, 44 teachers, 26 baptisers, 34 nurses. The territory, divided into 4 deaneries with 30 primary stations and 82 secondary ones, had 16 churches and 86 oratories. Among the works were 1 hospital with 70 beds, 18 dispensaries, 3 orphanages with 125 residents, 2 old people’s homes with 10 inmates and 1 dormitory for the poor with 60 beds. The 21 elementary schools had 1,750 children, and the 31 prayer and elementary schools had 348 listeners.
The first missionaries penetrated this region in the second half of the 17th century. The Jesuit Fr Le Fèvre reached L. and Liangchow, but did not remain there long. The Franciscans of Shensi and Shansi sometimes visited Christians who had taken refuge in Kansu during times of persecution. During the Boxer raids, the Apostolic Vicar Mgr Hamer was killed in south-western Mongolia.