SHAOWU, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. - In the north-western part of the province of Fukien, in southern China.
It was erected as a mission sui iuris on 18 July 1929, comprising four civil sub-prefectures detached from the apostolic vicariate of Foochow, and was entrusted to the Society of the Divine Saviour; on 21 May 1938 it was raised to an apostolic prefecture. It has an area of 7,881 sq. km. As of 30 June 1949, out of a total population of 270,411 inhabitants, there were 4,850 Catholics and 1,275 catechumens, with 17 regular priests, including 1 Chinese, 1 Chinese secular priest, 3 scholastics of the Divine Saviour, 9 minor seminarians, and 2 major seminarians. The auxiliary personnel numbered: 4 lay religious brothers, 24 nuns, including 16 Chinese, 18 catechists, 34 teachers, 22 baptizers, 2 physicians, and 51 nurses. There were 10 principal stations and 18 secondary ones, with 8 churches and 11 chapels. The institutions included 1 hospital, 8 dispensaries, 2 orphanages, and 2 homes for the aged. There were altogether 5 schools with 401 pupils.
The evangelization of the territory of S. took place intermittently: in 1671 the Jesuits had 400 Christians there. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Spanish Dominicans established permanent residences at S. and at Kwangtseh. Towards the end of 1922, the first 3 priests of the Society of the Divine Saviour arrived at S., to whom the mission was subsequently entrusted from its very beginning.