NANKING [NANJING], ARCHDIOCESE OF. - The first ecclesiastical organization of N. (= capital of the south) came about in 1658 with the erection of the apostolic vicariate of the same name, extended to the territory of various civil provinces, which until then had depended on the single diocese of Macao.
On 10 April 1690, at the request of the king of Portugal, the dioceses of Peking and of N. were erected, themselves also suffragan to Goa, like Macao. To the diocese of N. were assigned, besides the present civil provinces of Kiangsu and Anhwei, those of Chekiang, Fokien, Kwangsi, Hupeh, Hunan, Kweichow and Yunnan. In 1690 many of these provinces were constituted as independent apostolic vicariates, and to the diocese of N. there remained Kiangsu, Anhwei and Hunan. The latter too was detached from N. and erected as an apostolic vicariate on 2 March 1844 (v. NANYANG).
On 21 Jan. 1856 the diocese of N. was suppressed and the apostolic vicariate was reconstituted under the same name, which on 8 Aug. 1921 was divided into that of Anhwei (v. WUHU) and that of Kiangsu. The latter on 1 May 1922 again took the name of N., a designation confirmed on 3 Dec. 1924, and was repeatedly divided, to give rise to new ecclesiastical circumscriptions, namely: the apostolic vicariate of Haimen (v.) in 1926, the apostolic prefecture of Süchow (v.) in 1931, the apostolic vicariate of Shanghai (v.) in 1933. With the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, in 1946, N. was elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese of the ecclesiastical province of Kiangsu with the suffragan dioceses of Haimen, Shanghai and Süchow, to which in 1949 the new diocese of Soochow was added.
The Jesuits held the government of the diocese of N. from 1696 to 1718 and then again from 1752 to 1787, and thereafter from 1856 to 1933, when the government of the apostolic vicariate of N., a city that had shortly before become the capital of the Republic, passed to the Chinese secular clergy.
It has an area of about 30,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1948 it counted about 6,000,000 inhabitants, of whom Catholics numbered 32,390 and catechumens 987. It was served by 37 Chinese secular priests and 12 foreign ones, among them some Italian fathers of the Pious Society of St. Paul of Alba and some Belgian fathers of the Society of the Auxiliaries of the Missions. The major seminarians were 14; the lay brothers 5, all foreign; 34 Chinese sisters and 9 foreign. Among the works were 1 orphanage, 12 medicine dispensaries, 5 institutes for the education of youth; 44 schools of various grades. From previous statistics it was known that the territory was divided into 2 districts with 18 churches and 87 chapels, 13 primary stations and 100 secondary ones.
The mission owes its origin to the celebrated Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci (v.), who in 1599 established his residence there, came into contact with the literati and baptized a military mandarin together with his whole family.
In 1609 Father Vagnoni arrived who, after the conversion of a high mandarin, obtained permission to erect a church, the first in N., dedicated, on 3 May 1611, to the «Lord of Heaven». According to the testimony of Father Lombardi, successor of Ricci as superior of the Jesuit mission, the Christian community was flourishing and conversions were numerous, including among the literati. From 1626 the era of persecutions began: the missionaries were dragged before the tribunals and subjected to grave outrages and violence. Once the apostolic vicariate of N. was constituted in 1658, on 30 Sept. 1660 Msgr. Ignazio Cotolendi, titular bishop of Metellopoli, was placed at its head, to whom was also entrusted the apostolic administration of the provinces of Peking, Shansi, Shantung, Honan, Korea and Tartary; several years after his death, he was succeeded by the Chinese Dominican Gregorio Lô (Lopez) from 1690 to 1692. Then for two and a half centuries bishops of various religious families succeeded one another, until, once the apostolic vicariate was reconstituted (1856), it was entrusted to the Jesuits. In 1927 the nationalist armies, having occupied N., killed there Fathers Vanara and Dugout, plundered and devastated the residence and turned the church into a stable. Some Jesuits from California, assigned to open a school in N., were driven out by Chinese students. Even the Christian community of Wusih, between N. and Shanghai, which dates back to 1701, had its church burned down.