YANGCHOW, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. — In the central-western part of Kiangsu province, in central China. It was erected on 9 June 1949 from seven civil sub-prefectures of the diocese of Shanghai and entrusted to the Jesuits of the California province.
It covers an area of approximately 12,000 sq km. At the time of its erection, with a total population of approximately 4,800,000 inhabitants, there were 3,002 Catholics and 256 catechumens distributed across seven districts, each with a church, a missionary residence, and a school, served by 13 priests, of whom six were American Jesuits and the other seven were Chinese secular clergy from nearby missions, temporarily assigned to Y.; the Auxiliary Sisters of Purgatory also worked there.
From a Christian tombstone discovered in Y. in 1952, bearing an image of the Virgin with the Child, a Latin inscription in Gothic characters, and the date “June 1342,” historical proof is provided of the existence of the Franciscan Catholic mission in Y. in the first half of the 14th century, as had hitherto been assumed from the account of Bl. Odoric of Pordenone. Before the Franciscans, Nestorian heretics had preached there. After the disappearance of all Christian traces, evangelization was resumed in the 17th century through the efforts of the Jesuits, first among them Fr. Giulio Aleni, who, among various conversions, brought about that of a Chinese scholar from Y., baptized with the name Peter. Fr. Francesco Saccani, the apostle of Nanking, converted several young scholars at Hwai’an and left a good number of neophytes there (1638). From 1660, Fr. Gian Domenico Gabiani preached fruitfully in Y.; twenty years later, several thousand faithful were counted there.
The mission, nearly annihilated during the persecution of Emperor K’ang-hsi, revived with the return of the Jesuits to China in 1842. Fr. Giuseppe Sackinger worked in Y. (1866) and in Hwai’an (1868), where permanent residences were established in 1881 and 1886 respectively, followed by Kaoyu (1886), Tsingkiangpu (1933), and other principal centers starting from 1921.