Sian [Xi'an], Archdiocese of

SIAN [XI'AN], Archdiocese of. - In the center of the province of Shensi, in northern China.

It may be said to have been erected, under the name of apostolic vicariate of Shansi and Shensi, on 15 Oct. 1696, when those two provinces, together with the province of Kansu, were detached from the diocese of Peking and constituted as an autonomous mission: from that time, with Fr. Basilio Brollo of Gemona (d. 1704), the series of Ordinaries of S. is made to begin. On 3 March 1844 the apostolic vicariate of Shensi was erected, including also Kansu, and the apostolic vicariate of Shansi. The former, from which on 21 June 1878 Kansu had been detached (v. LANCHOW), on 2 Aug. 1887 was divided into the apostolic vicariates of southern Shensi (v. HANCHUNG) and northern Shensi; the latter, on 11 Apr. 1911, was again divided into the apostolic vicariates of northern Shensi (v. YENAN) and central Shensi, which on 3 Dec. 1924 took the name of Sianfu. In 1928 it ceded three civil subprefectures for the erection of Hingan, in 1931 it ceded 16 for the erection of Sanyuan (v.) and 12 for that of Tungchow (v.), then in 1932 it ceded 6 for the erection of Chowchih and 6 for the erection of Fengsiang (v.). On 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, S. was elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese of the ecclesiastical province of Shensi, with the suffragan dioceses of Fengsiang, Hanchung, Sanyuan, Yenan, to which on 10 March 1951 the diocese of Chowchih was added. It was entrusted from the beginning to the Order of Friars Minor, which for the missionary work sends there the Italian religious of the Tuscan regular province of St. Bonaventure.

It has an area of 12 sq km. As of 30 June 1948, out of about 1,500,000 inhabitants, Catholics numbered 13,795 and catechumens 2,945. Working there, besides the archbishop, were 9 Chinese secular priests and 16 Franciscan priests, of whom 1 was Chinese; 61 nuns, of whom 48 were Chinese; 24 catechists, 69 teachers, 29 baptizers, 2 doctors and 15 nurses. The institutions amounted to 1 seminary, 1 hospital, 9 medicine dispensaries and 1 orphanage. The territory was divided into 15 primary stations and 128 secondary ones with 11 churches and 68 chapels. The 11 elementary schools gathered 1,552 pupils and the middle school 346.

In S., then the capital of China, Christianity, in the form of the Nestorian heresy, made its first appearance in 635 and from S. spread to the most remote provinces of the Empire during the 7th-8th centuries, but - it seems - made very few proselytes among the Chinese. Of this first evangelical preaching we are historically certain following the discovery of the famous stele of S. carved on 4 Feb. 781 and brought to light by the Jesuits in 1625. Bl. Odoric of Pordenone (14th century) stayed at S. on his return journey to Europe. Evangelization was resumed at the beginning of the 17th century by the Jesuits, called there by the mandarin Wancheng, who had been baptized by them (v. SANYUAN). They, among whom particularly worthy of remembrance is Fr. Étienne Fabre, who died at S. in 1659, gave a methodical impulse to the mission, and their work was continued by the Franciscans, some of whom pushed as far as the Great Wall, such as Fr. Gabriele of Turin in 1742 and Fr. Giambattista of Serravalle in 1755. Nevertheless, grave persecutions that raged on several occasions from 1724 to 1843 prevented the prosperous development of Christianity, which on the contrary had more numerous conversions in the first half of this century, in which, however, there was no lack, beginning in 1926, of disturbances to the missionary work provoked by almost continuous incursions of brigand bands that penetrated from Honan, or by those that swarmed on the spot and, for nearly twenty years, also provoked by communist unrest. The apostolic vicar De Donato (1843-48) established the seat of the mission at Tungyuanfang, where it remained until 1923.

Adamo Pucci