TSINAN, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - The Apostolic Vicariate of Shantung, erected on 3 Sept. 1839, originally comprised the entire civil province of Shantung in north-eastern China, which until then had belonged to the Diocese of Peking.
After the residence of the Ordinary had been at Shierlichwang, near Wucheng, in the territory of the present Apostolic Prefecture of Lintsing, it was transferred for greater security and permanently established at T. (1863) by the then Apostolic Vicar, the Franciscan Luigi Moccagatta. On 8 Jan. 1885 it took the name of Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Shantung, ceding the entire southern portion for the erection of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Shantung (v. YENCHOW). On 27 Jan. 1894 it ceded the eastern portion, with which the Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Shantung was erected (v. CHEFOO). On 3 Dec. 1924 it took the name of Apostolic Vicariate of T.; on 16 Apr. 1929 it ceded four civil prefectures for the erection of the Mission *sui iuris* of Changtien (v. CHOWTSUN); and on 5 Apr. 1931 it ceded a further Lintsing (v.). On 11 Apr. 1946, T. was raised to the status of metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of Shantung, with the suffragan dioceses of Chefoo, Chowtsun, Ichow, Tsachow, Tsingtao, Yangku and Yencow. It has been entrusted from the beginning to the Friars Minor of the regular provinces of Alsace and Cologne.
Over an area of 25,000 sq. km., it counted on 30 June 1950 a population of 5,000,000, of whom 44,016 were Catholics; 317 churches served by 19 indigenous priests and 65 regular clergy; 2 male and 4 female religious congregations; it has 1 major and 1 minor seminary, 28 educational institutes and 5 charitable institutions. At Hungkialu, near T., was located the regional seminary for major seminarians of the missions of T., Chefoo, Chowtsun, Idushien, Lintsing and Weihaiwei.
At the time of its erection as an Apostolic Vicariate (1839), Shantung counted nearly 5,000 Catholics, the fruit of the preaching of the Jesuits, Franciscans and Dominicans. In 1841 a seminary was founded there. Despite various calamities, such as the devastations of the Taiping in 1854, the flooding of the Yellow River in 1855, and the famine in the years 1877–79, the mission continued to make steady progress, as evidenced by the numerous divisions mentioned above.