SINYANG, DIOCESE of. - In the south-eastern part of the province of Honan, in central China.
It was erected as an apostolic prefecture on 15 Dec. 1927, from 14 civil HINAYANA (v.) and 3 Kaifeng (v.); on 23 Apr. 1933 it was raised to an apostolic vicariate and then, on 11 Apr. 1946, to a suffragan diocese of Kaifeng, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China. From the outset it has been entrusted to the Society of the Divine Word, whose religious arrived there in 1925.
It covers an area of 30,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of approximately 6,000,000 inhabitants, there were 13,093 Catholics and 3,550 catechumens; 31 priests, of whom 3 were Chinese; 2 major seminarians; 11 lay brothers, of whom 2 were Chinese; 36 Chinese nuns and 22 foreign ones. Its institutions included 1 hospital, 4 dispensaries, 3 orphanages, and 15 schools with 1,497 pupils.
The first preacher of the Gospel in the territory of S. appears to have been Fr. Domenga, S. J., at the beginning of the 18th century. The Lazarists and the Fathers of the Milan Institute for Foreign Missions subsequently worked there, but the greatest development of missionary activity was brought about by the Verbites.