LINTSING, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. — In the province of Shantung (northeastern China). It was erected on 5 April 1931 with 13 civil sub-prefectures Tsinan (v.) and entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy. As an apostolic prefecture, it depends directly on the Holy See.
As of 30 June 1947, out of approximately 2,000,000 inhabitants, there were 20,110 Catholics, served by 27 indigenous secular priests and foreign Franciscans, 20 religious sisters, and 20 nuns.
It seems that Bl. Odoric of Pordenone preached in the territory of L. at the beginning of the 14th century; it is certain that Fr. Matteo Ricci passed through in 1598 and 1600. In 1685, a Chinese official from L. invited, by letter, the Jesuit Fr. Vallat to come to L. to baptize 600 catechumens. The same missionary left an account of the results obtained at Tongchang. From 1701 until the persecution of Kienglong (1785), there were Italian Franciscan missionaries in L., among whom Bernardino Della Chiesa, later bishop of Peking, and Carlo Orazì da Castorano stood out. From 1785, when the Franciscan personnel were no longer present, Christians were occasionally visited by missionaries from neighboring regions and by secular priests, former students of the Chinese College of Naples (founded by the Venerable Matteo Ripa). Frequent persecutions, however, reduced the faithful to 1,800 by 1838. After the creation of the apostolic vicariate of Shantung (1839), the Franciscans returned to the mission the same year. In 1841, the apostolic vicar, Bishop Moccagatta, established his residence at Shi-eul-li-chwang near Wucheng (in the territory of the present apostolic prefecture), later transferred, for greater security, within the walls of Tsianfu in 1863.