YENKI, DIOCESI of. — It is located in the eastern part of Manchuria and comprises the entire civil prefecture of the same name, divided into two subprefectures, with an area of 63,770 sq. km. and a population of 1,200,000 inhabitants.
It was erected on 19 March 1928 as an apostolic prefecture, by dismemberment of the present-day diocese of Kirin, and entrusted to the Benedictine Congregation of S. Ottilia; it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate on 13 April 1937 and, on 11 April 1946, to a suffragan diocese of Moukden. From 1945 to the present, this mission has experienced the harsh trials of the Russian regime. The last eight missionaries of S. Ottilia left the diocese in August 1952. At present, only one Chinese priest remains there, along with two sisters, who live privately. Mons. Teodoro Breher died in November 1950 as a result of the mistreatment and privations suffered in prison. The diocese is now (1953) nominally governed by an apostolic administrator. According to the 1945 statistical data, the missionary personnel consisted of 20 Benedictines and 8 indigenous priests; 14 foreign brothers and one national brother; 18 foreign sisters and 14 indigenous sisters. The Catholics numbered 18,000.
Until 1934, the territory of Y. was commonly known by the name of Kanto, where the Gospel arrived without missionaries. In 1896, a Korean inhabitant of Kanto went to Wonsan (in Korea proper), where he had the opportunity to be instructed and baptized by Fr. Vermorel, of the Paris Foreign Missions. The following year, the zealous neophyte returned there with 12 people whom he himself had catechized, and they too were baptized. A catechist was then sent to Kanto and, until 1908, a missionary visited the new Christian community every year. In 1910, a Korean priest also went there and settled on the spot together with two other priests of the Paris Foreign Missions. In 1921, the Benedictines of S. Ottilia took charge of the region of Y. In only six years, the number of Christians rose from 7,000 to 12,000. In 1934, the abbey of the Holy Cross was canonically erected in the city of Y., and the appointment of the abbot fell to the same person as the apostolic vicar, Mons. Breher.