PYONG-YANG, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - Located in the north-western part of Korea and separated from Manchuria by the Yalu River, it was erected as an apostolic prefecture of Hpeng-yang on 27 March 1927 by dismemberment of the apostolic vicariate of Seoul. On 17 March 1929 it took the name of Peng-yan and on 11 July 1939 it was elevated to a vicariate, with the designation of Heijo, later changed on 12 July 1950 to that of Pyong-yang, entrusted to the Maryknoll Society. On 18 Feb. 1943 it passed to the Korean secular clergy.

The first American missionaries sent by Propaganda, on 28 Feb. 1922, reached there in May 1922. At that time in the region of P. there were barely 5,000 faithful, assisted sporadically by the priests of the Paris Foreign Missions. In 1935 the Catholics numbered more than 15,000. In the remote station of Gishu there still remains today, almost a sacred monument, the northern gate, called the "Holy Gate", through which the European missionaries, defying the edicts of interdiction, introduced themselves clandestinely into Korea, along the frozen Yalu River.

PYONG-YANG, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of - The mission church and the missionaries.(phot. Fides)

The mission has an area of 43,517 sq km with a population of 3,800,000 inhabitants. Before the present war the spiritual state was as follows: Catholics 22,133, with 658 catechumens; 2,900,000 pagans; 146,000 Protestants. The personnel was made up of 23 Maryknoll fathers and 7 native priests; 2 brothers and 17 Maryknoll sisters and 10 native ones; 95 catechists; 244 teachers; 10 major seminarians. There were 11 elementary schools; 2 dispensaries; 3 homes for the aged, an orphanage; 22 primary stations and 156 secondary ones.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: Archivio della S. Congr. di Propaganda Fide, Relazione con sommario, pos. prot. nn. 759/27, 342/43, 099/44; ibid., Relazione con sommario, pos. prot. n. 2087/39; anon. Le catholicisme en Corée, son origine et ses progrès, Hong-Kong 1924, pp. 89-100; AAS, 19 (1927), pp. 269-70; 21 (1939), pp. 593-94; 32 (1940), pp. 15-21; MC, 80 (1950), pp. 398-99.

Edoardo Pecorano

@incollection{ec10_pyong_yang_vicariato_apostolic, author = {Pecoraio, Edoardo}, title = {Pyong-Yang, vicariato apostolico di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {357--358}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pyong-yang-vicariato-apostolico-di} }

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Pyong-Yang, Apostolic Vicariate of

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