NINGPO, DIOCESE OF. - The Apostolic Vicariate of Chekiang, erected on 27 May 1846 and comprising the civil province of the same name in east-central China, was divided on 10 May 1910 into the Apostolic Vicariates of Western Chekiang (q.V. HANGCHOW) and Eastern Chekiang, which on 2 December 1924 took the name of N.
After ceding part of its territory for the formation of the Apostolic Vicariate of Taichow (q.v.; 10 August 1926), the Apostolic Prefecture of Chuchow, now Lishui (q.v.; 2 July 1931), and the Diocese of Yungkia (q.v.; 3 March 1949), it was elevated on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, to a suffragan diocese of Hangchow. It is entrusted to the Congregation of the Mission.
It covers an area of approximately 20,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1949, out of a population of about 6,000,000, there were 17,497 Catholics; besides the bishop, there were 17 foreign priests and 41 Chinese priests, 12 major seminaries and 19 minor ones, 90 Chinese and 16 foreign sisters, 56 catechists, 180 teachers, 103 baptized, 13 churches and 98 chapels. Among its works are 6 hospitals and 7 homes for the elderly. There were 40 schools.
When the Apostolic Vicariate of Chekiang and Kiangsi was erected in 1838, one of the few existing nuclei of the faithful was at N.; prior to that date, evangelization had been carried out by the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, the Paris Foreign Missions Society, and also by other priests sent directly by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide and thus called “propagandists.”