Nanyang, Diocese of

NANYANG, DIOCESE of. – The Apostolic Vicariate of Honan, erected on 2 March 1844, when the civil province of the same name, in central China, was detached from the Diocese of Nanchino, had its center in the city of Kinkiakang, near N.

On 1 September 1882 it was divided into two Apostolic Vicariates, of northern Honan (v. WEIHWEI) and southern Honan; the latter was again divided on 21 September 1916, giving rise to that of eastern Honan (Kaifeng), and then divided once more on 15 December 1927 HINAYANA (v.), and finally, on 2 March 1933, ceded four civil subprefectures which, together with three others from the mission of Sinyang, Chumatien (v.). On 3 December 1924 it received its present name from the city of N. On 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, N. was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Kaifeng. The Lazarists were responsible for the Apostolic Vicariate of Honan from its foundation (1844) until 1869, the year in which the same mission passed to the Seminary of S. Calocero, now the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions of Milan, which continues to have the mother mission of N.

It covers an area of 12,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1949 it had approximately 4,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 22,807 were Catholics and 4,000 catechumens. Priests: 8 Chinese and 19 Italian; the minor seminary and the preparatory seminary were temporarily closed. Auxiliary personnel: 40 sisters, all Chinese; 18 catechists; 1 physician and 14 nurses. The territory, divided into 5 districts, had 2 parishes, 14 primary stations and 100 secondary stations, with 23 churches and 60 chapels; 1 hospital, 7 medical clinics, 2 orphanages, 2 homes for the elderly and 1 printing press. All the mission schools had been suppressed by the new regime.

From a religious standpoint, in 1587 the province of Honan was included, like the rest of China, in the single diocese of Macao; in 1690 it passed to the diocese of Beijing, and in 1696 to that of Nanjing, from which it was separated in 1844. The first preachers of the Gospel there were the Jesuits, probably around 1620. After the suppression of the Jesuits, the Lazarists took charge of this province, where, among others, Blessed Clet and Perboyre worked; in 1869 the Lazarists were succeeded by the

Missionaries of Milan, who were the true founders of the mission under the wise direction of Mgr. Simeone Volonteri, who led it from 1869 to 1904. The emergence of the numerous missions mentioned above from the mother mission of N. is an indication of the heartening development of Christianity in Honan during the first half of the 20th century; a development barbarously halted and cut short in these days.