YÜTZE, DIOCESE OF. — Located in the central-eastern part of the Shansi Province (northern China).
Erected as an apostolic prefecture on 7 June 1931 with ten civil sub-prefectures of the Tai-yuan mission (v.); raised to an apostolic vicariate in March 1944; made a suffragan diocese of Tai-yuan on 11 April 1946. It has been entrusted since its inception to the Franciscan Friars Minor of Bologna. Area approximately 24,000 sq. km., with about 1,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 15,400 are Catholic; 24 priests (11 Chinese); 38 Chinese sisters; 1 orphanage, 1 hospital, 2 dispensaries, 17 schools (30 June 1947).
In the four civil sub-prefectures situated toward the east, evangelical preaching dates back to just over 70 years ago, while in the other six it began with the evangelization of Shansi toward the end of the 17th century. Nearly all of the 7,700 Christians entrusted to Y. in 1931 came from these regions; they remained steadfast in the faith, and their ancestors, especially in the sub-prefecture of Kihsien, faced martyrdom and exile in Turkestan rather than apostatize. During the Boxer persecution (1900), this Christian community alone produced 650 martyrs, encouraged in their resistance by the Chinese priest Paul Shen, who himself became a martyr.
Y.W.C.A.: V. YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.