SIANGTAN, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. - In the central-eastern part of the province of Hunan, in central China.
It was erected on 1 July 1937 with 6 civil subprefectures detached Changsha (v.) and was entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor, which, for missionary work, sends there religious from the regular Bolognese province of S. Caterina.
It has an area of 21,335 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of approximately 4,000,000 inhabitants, there were 5,073 Catholics and 46 catechumens; 9 priests, of whom 1 was Chinese; 1 major seminary; and 4 sisters. Its institutions included 1 hospital, 1 orphanage, 2 dispensaries; and 1 school with 25 pupils.
In the city of S. there were already 2 churches in 1689; Giovanni In, the first priest of the Collegio dei Cinesi, inaugurated in Naples on 25 July 1732 by the ven. Matteo Ripa, is also buried there. Despite many persecutions, the Catholic faith remained alive: even today there are faithful descended from those ancient Christian communities. In 1936, the year preceding the erection of S., there were 3,190 Catholics and 432 catechumens in this territory.