QUINHON, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. - This mission formerly constituted the principal part of the apostolic vicariate of Cochinchina, Cambodia, and Champa, erected in 1658.
On 2 March 1844 the territory was divided into an eastern apostolic vicariate (from 3 Dec. 1924, of Q.) and a western apostolic vicariate (now Saigon; V. INDOCINESE FEDERAZIONE, II: Evangelizzazione). In 1659, the then-established vicariate of Cochinchina, Cambodia, and Champa was entrusted to the Fathers of the Paris Foreign Missions, under the jurisdiction of Msgr. Pietro Lamberto de la Motte. Meanwhile, the preaching of the Gospel met with happy success everywhere. Indeed, by the end of the eighteenth century, the number of the faithful amounted to approximately 100,000. The Christian community was the victim of cruel persecutions for more than two centuries, culminating in 1833 in a declared war of extermination against the Christian name.
Over an area of 35,000 sq. km., the mission of Q.
has a population of approximately 2,500,000 inhabitants. Catholics number 69,230, with 300 catechumens; 83 native priests and 27 of the Paris Foreign Missions; 61 native brothers and 14 foreign brothers; 254 native sisters and 21 foreign sisters; one major and one minor seminary; 67 primary and 368 secondary stations; 53 churches and 356 chapels; 50 elementary schools; 5 secondary schools; 3 teacher-training schools; one hospital; 3 dispensaries; 16 orphanages; a home for the aged; a leprosarium; a printing house.
of Prop. Fide. Relazione con sommario, pos. prot. n. 2072/24; ibid., Relatio quinquennalis, pos. prot. n. 82/36; MC, 1930, pp. 281-82. Edoardo Pecorani