LAOHOKOW, Diocese of. — In China, in the civil province of Hupeh. Erected on 11 Sept. 1870 under the name of Apostolic Vicariate of North-West Hupeh, by division of the Apostolic Vicariate of Hupeh (v. HANKOW; ICHANG); on 3 Dec. 1924 it took the name of L., residence of the Ordinary; on 25 May 1936 it ceded 4 civil subprefectures SIANGYANG, DIOCESI DI (v.), entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy; and on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was raised to the rank of a suffragan diocese of Hankow. It has been entrusted from the beginning to the Order of Friars Minor, who send missionaries there.
LAOOKOW — LAON
Bibl.: Annuaire de l'Église catholique en Chine 1948, Shanghai 1948, passim; MC, 1950, pp. 361-62. Adamo Pucci