SANYŪAN, DIOCESE of. — In the center of Shensi province, in northern China.
It was erected as an apostolic prefecture on 1 November 1931, with 16 civil subprefectures ASIA (v.); on 13 July 1944 it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate, and on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it became a suffragan diocese of Sian. From the beginning, it has been entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor, which sends Italian religious there for missionary work from the Venetian regular province of S. Antonio.
It has an area of 12,600 sq km. As of 30 June 1948, out of a total population of approximately 1,200,000 inhabitants, there were 12,474 Catholics and 484 catechumens; 11 Chinese secular priests, 17 Franciscans, of whom 1 was Chinese; and 2 Italian lay Franciscans. The auxiliary personnel consisted of 38 sisters, of whom 32 were Chinese; 9 catechists, 18 teachers, and 32 baptizers. In the territory, divided into 14 districts, there were 14 primary and 88 secondary stations, with 8 churches and 55 chapels. The institutions included 2 hospitals with 45 beds, 2 medicine dispensaries, 1 orphanage, and 2 homes for the elderly. The 9 primary schools had 378 pupils, and the 5 schools of prayer and basic instruction had 154 attendees.
The Christian origins of S. date back to the seventeenth century and are shared with those of Shensi (v. SIAO), where Catholicism was introduced through the initiative of the mandarin Wangchen, a native of Kiateou, near S. The small town of Tungyuanfang, a short distance from S., was the residence of the apostolic vicar of Shensi from 1845 to 1923; there were built the Seminary, the large orphanage entrusted to the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (1890), the seismological observatory founded by Msgr. Tessiatore, apostolic vicar, the hospital, and the schools. From 1934 onward, famine, banditry, and disturbances caused by the revolutionary government established at S. brought much suffering to the mission.