SWATOW [SHANTOU], DIOCESE OF. - On the coast of the South China Sea, in the province of Kwangtung.

It was erected as an apostolic vicariate under the name of Chaochow on 6 April 1914, by division of the apostolic prefecture of Kwangtung, which on the same date was elevated to an apostolic vicariate under the name of Canton (v.); on 18 August 1915 it received its present name of S.; on 20 February 1920 it ceded 9 civil subprefectures to give life to the apostolic prefecture of Kaying (v.); on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese suffragan of Canton. It has been entrusted, from the beginning, to the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. It has an area of 20,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of 5,000,000 inhabitants, Catholics numbered 30,000, with 31 Chinese priests and 21 foreign priests.

Christianity in the territory of S. was spread after 1873, and already in 1884 there were 15,000 faithful counted there; then the war between France, China and Tonkin halted the movement of conversions for about ten years, which then resumed and proceeded at a constant pace.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: AAS, 6 (1914), pp. 342-43; 7 (1915), pp. 440-41; GM, p. 209; Annuaire de l'Eglise cat. en Chine 1948, Sciangai 1948, passim; MC, 1950, p. 388.

Adamo Pucci

@incollection{ec11_swaton_shantow_diocesi_di, author = {Pucci, Adamo}, title = {Swaton (Shantow), diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1662}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/swaton-shantow-diocesi-di} }

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Swatow [Shantou], Diocese of

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