SANYUAN, Diocese of. - In the center of the province of Shensi, in northern China.
It was erected as an apostolic prefecture on Nov. 1, 1931 with 16 civil sub-prefectures of the apostolic vicariate of Sian (v.); on July 13, 1944 it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate, and on Apr. 11, 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it became a suffragan diocese of Sian. It has been entrusted, from the beginning, to the Order of Friars Minor, which for the missionary work sends there the Italian religious of the Venetian regular province of St. Anthony.
It has an area of 12,600 sq km. As of June 30, 1948, out of a total population of about 1,200,000 inhabitants, Catholics numbered 12,474 and catechumens 484; Chinese secular priests 11, Franciscan priests 17 of whom 1 Chinese; Italian lay Franciscans 2. The auxiliary personnel numbered
38 sisters, of whom 32 Chinese; 9 catechists, 18 teachers, 32 baptizers. Over the territory, divided into 14 districts, were distributed 14 primary and 88 secondary stations, with 8 churches and 55 chapels. Among the works were 2 hospitals with 45 beds, 2 medicine dispensaries, 1 orphanage, 2 homes for the aged. The 9 primary schools had 378 pupils and the 5 schools of prayer and first elements 154 listeners.
The Christian origins of S. go back to the 17th century and are common to 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, and 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, the schools. From 1934 onward the famine, brigandage, and the disturbances caused by the revolutionary government installed at S. brought much suffering to the mission.
Bibliography5 works
Adamo Pucci