NANCHANG, DIOCESE OF. — In the eastern part of the civil and ecclesiastical province of Kiangsi (central China). It was erected as an apostolic prefecture on 29 Nov. 1932, under the name of Kienchangfu, with five civil sub-prefectures detached from the mission of Yükkiang (v.), and was entrusted to the Society of St Columban for the Chinese Missions, whose fathers had been working in that territory since 1928. On 13 Dec. 1938 it was raised to the status of an apostolic vicariate and took its present name; with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China on 11 Apr. 1946, it became a diocese, a suffragan of Nanchang.
It covers an area of 8,696 sq km. As of 30 June 1949 it had a population of about 500,000, of whom 9,037 were Catholics and catechumens, 15 communes, and 4 Chinese secular priests, assisted by 4 Irish sisters, 85 catechists, and 54 teachers. It had 1 preparatory, 1 minor, and 1 major seminary. There were 13 primary stations, 25 secondary stations; 12 churches, 7 chapels; 1 hospital; 12 medical dispensaries; 1 orphanage; 1 hospice for the elderly and 1 for the blind; 9 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 10 prayer and elementary schools.
It seems that Fr Giovanni de Rocha was the first preacher of the Gospel in N., where, having fled the city of Nanchang during a persecution in 1616, he is said to have founded a flourishing Christian community. Subsequently, the history of Catholicism in this region merges with that of the other missions of Kiangsi (v. KIANG; NANCHANG; YUKIANG, etc).