NANNING, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - The civil province of Kwangsi, in southern China, was detached from the Apostolic Prefecture of Kwangtung (q.V. CANTO) on 6 August 1875 and itself erected into an Apostolic Prefecture, and on 6 June 1914 raised to the status of an Apostolic Vicariate.
In 1922 it ceded 4 civil subprefectures for the erection of the mission of Lanlung (q.v.); on 3 December 1924 it took its name from the city of N., the provincial capital and seat of the Ordinary, and on 30 June 1930 ceded 9 civil subprefectures for the erection of Wuchow. With the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China on 11 April 1946, N. was raised to the rank of metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of Kwangsi, with the Diocese of Wuchow as its suffragan. It is entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions Society.
It covers an area of approximately 120,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1949 it had a population of over 6,000,000, of whom 7,584 were Catholics. The archbishop was assisted by 17 foreign priests and 10 Chinese; 50 native sisters and 13 foreign sisters. Among its works: 1 hospital, 2 orphanages, and 10 medical dispensaries; 30 elementary schools. In the province there is a high percentage of aboriginal population. The evangelical preaching, begun in the second half of the last century, though not openly persecuted, nevertheless met with continuous opposition from local civil authorities. In 1856 Fr. Auguste Chapdelaine was killed, together with two Chinese Christians, in the city of Silin. Other victims occurred in 1897 and 1898. The progress of Christianity was therefore slow and limited.