QUINHON [QUY NHON], APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - This mission once constituted the main 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 (today Saigon; v. INDOCINESE FEDERAZIONE, II: Evangelization). In 1659, the then-erected vicariate of Cochinchina, Cambodia and Champa was entrusted to the Fathers of the Foreign Missions of Paris, under the jurisdiction of Msgr. Pierre Lambert de la Motte. The preaching of the Gospel, meanwhile, met with happy success everywhere. Indeed, toward the end of the 18th century, the number of the faithful amounted to about 100,000. The Christian community was the victim of cruel persecutions for more than two centuries, which culminated in 1833 in a declared war of extermination of the Christian name.
Over an area of 35,000 sq km, the mission of Q. has a population of about 2,500,000 inhabitants. Catholics number 69,230 with 300 catechumens; 83 native priests and 27 of the Foreign Missions of Paris; 61 native brothers and 14 foreign; 254 native sisters and 21 foreign; one major seminary and one minor; 67 primary stations and 368 secondary; 53 churches and 356 chapels; 50 elementary schools; 5 secondary schools; 3 teacher-training schools; one hospital; 3 dispensaries; 16 orphanages; one home for the aged; one leprosarium; one printing press.
Bibliography2 works
di 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