NANYANG, DIOCESE OF. — The Apostolic Vicariate of Honan, erected on 2 March 1844, when the homonymous civil province in central China was detached from the Diocese of Nanjing, had its centre in the city of Kinkiakang, near N.
On 1 September 1882 it was divided into two Apostolic Vicariates: Northern Honan (see WEIHWEI) and Southern Honan; this was again divided on 21 September 1916, giving rise to that of Eastern Honan (Kaifeng), and then again on 15 December 1927 for the erection of Sinyang (see). Finally, on 2 March 1933 it ceded four civil subprefectures, which, together with three others from the mission of Sinyang, formed the Apostolic Prefecture of Chumatien (see). On 3 December 1924 it took its present name from the city of N. On 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, N. was raised to the status of a suffragan diocese of Kaifeng. The Lazzarists had charge of the Apostolic Vicariate of Honan from its foundation (1844) until 1869, when the mission passed to the Seminary of St Calocerus, 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 Italians; the minor and preparatory seminaries were temporarily closed. Auxiliary personnel: 40 sisters, all Chinese; 18 catechists; 1 doctor 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 dispensaries, 2 orphanages, 2 homes for the elderly and 1 printing press. All the mission schools had been suppressed by the new regime.
From the religious point of view, the province of Honan, in 1587, 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 detached in 1844. The first preachers of the Gospel in the area were the Jesuits, probably around 1620. After the suppression of the Jesuits, the Lazzarists took charge of this province, where, among others, the Blessed Clet and Perboyre laboured; in 1869 they were succeeded by the Missionaries of Milan, who were the true founders of the mission under the wise guidance of Monsignor Si-moene Volontieri, who directed it from 1869 to 1904. The emergence of the numerous missions, mentioned above, from the mother mission of N. is an index of the encouraging development of Christianity in Honan during the first half of the 20th century; a development brutally arrested and cut short in these days.