YUNGCHOW [YONGZHOU], APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. - In the southern part of the province of Hunan (central China).

It was erected on 12 May 1925 with 21 civil sub-prefectures of the apostolic vicariate of Changsha and entrusted to the Friars Minor of Bolzano. On 3 June 1938 it ceded 9 civil sub-prefectures for the erection of Paoting (v.).

Area 44,000 sq km, with about 5,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 3000 are Catholics; 11 priests (2 Chinese); 17 nuns (2 native); 1 hospital, 3 dispensaries, 2 orphanages. The 9 elementary schools and the 2 vocational schools had already been closed (30 June 1947).

The beginnings of the faith go back to the beginning of the last century. The first apostles were people who, having gone, for trade or work, to the neighboring region of Szechwan, embraced Catholicism there, and then, having returned, made their family members and fellow villagers share in it. The first missionaries were the Chinese priests Nicola Ho, of the province of Szechwan, and Giuseppe Taung, of the province of Kwangtung, both former pupils of the College of Naples, founded by the ven. Matteo Ripa. The first European missionary was Fr. Giovanni Lantrua da Triora (v.), who died a martyr at Changsha on 13 Feb. 1816 and was beatified in 1900. But development was slow: before the Boxer persecution (1907) there was no church or oratory in any city, and the few Christians were scattered through the countryside of four districts. In 1925 preaching had been extended to 12 districts, 10 cities were provided with a church or oratory, and the Christians numbered about 7000.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: AAS, 17 (1925), pp. 444-45; Arch. di Prop. Fide, Incarto erezione Y., 1925; GM, p. 213; Annuaire de l'Eglise cath. en Chine 1948, Shanghai 1948, passim; MC, 1950, p. 371.

Adamo Pucci

@incollection{ec12_yungchow_prefettura_apostolica, author = {Pucci, Adamo}, title = {Yungchow, prefettura apostolica di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1749}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/yungchow-prefettura-apostolica-di} }

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Yungchow [Yongzhou], Apostolic Prefecture of

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