YOCHOW, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. — In the north-eastern part of Hunan Province (central China).
It was erected on 7 May 1931 from four civil sub-prefectures of the Changteh mission (v.) and entrusted, like the mother mission, to the Augustinian Hermits of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in the Philippines. It covers an area of about 12,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1947, out of approximately 3,500,000 inhabitants, there were 9,252 Catholics and 250 catechumens; the priests were Chinese; there were 1 major seminarian, 13 minor seminarians, and 10 sisters, of whom 7 were indigenous. Among its works were 1 hospital, 2 dispensaries, 1 orphanage, and 2 schools.
In 1879, when the Augustinian Hermits arrived in the northern Hunan region, from which the missions of Yuanling, Lichow, and Y. were later detached, they found only 45 Christians. In the first twenty years the spread of the Gospel was hindered and thus very limited, but from 1901 it made notable progress, and even more so from 1911. In 1931, when this region, already reduced by the territory that formed Yuanling, had 17,133 faithful and 11,000 catechumens, of whom 650 and 2,309 respectively passed to Y.