Apostolic Vicariate of Kiang-nan
The Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Kiang-nan () was a missionary jurisdiction in mainland China, comprising the two imperial provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui, often referred to as Jiangnan (Wade-Giles: Kiang-nan). History Jiangnan's alluvial lands make the region, especially Jiangsu, one of the richest and most populous countries of China. The number of inhabitants of both provinces exceeded 60,000,000. The Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci was its first missionary, introducing the Catholic religion into this country at the end of the 16th century. He found a powerful aid in the person of the Kangxi Emperor's minister, the famous academician Xu Guangqi, whom he met first at Guangdong and later at Beijing. Baptized in 1603 at Nanjing, Paul Xu returned to Shanghai, his native place, and there converted many Chinese to Catholicism. In 1607 he took with him from Beijing Father Lazzaro Cattaneo, who built a residence and a chapel still to be seen at Shanghai. Returning to Beijing, he first followed the Jesuit fathers in their disgrace, was restored to favor in 1628, and died there in 1633. In 1641 his remains were transferred to Xujiahui, where they still rest, and the principal establishment of the new mission is in the vicinity his tomb. The Jesuits Francesco Brancati and Geronimo de Gravina were at this period building the churches of Sun-kiang, Suzhou and Chongming; Father Sambriani, those of Nanjing, Yangzhou and Huai'an. The mission of Jiangnan enjoyed peace from 1644 to 1661, but the missionaries were too few for the work. In 1660 the Vicariate Apostolic of Jiangnan was created and confided to Bishop Ignace Cotolendi of the Paris Society of Foreign Missions. During the persecutions from 1664 to 1671, twenty Jesuits were exiled to Macau, Father Ferdinand Verbiest in Beijing obtaining their release in the latter year. After the death of the Kangxi Emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor exiled all the missionaries of the provinces; a few, however, succeeded in hiding themselves, and, helped by twelve or fifteen Chinese priests, attended to the wants of the Christians. In 1690 Alexander VIII created the Diocese of Nanjing, placing it under the jurisdiction of the (Portuguese Indian) Archbishop of Goa and with authority over the provinces of Jiangnan and Henan. The first bishop of Nanjing was Allessandro Ciceri of Milan, a Jesuit, consecrated at Macau on 2 February 1696. His last successor was Gaietano Pires-Pireira, a Portuguese Lazarist (d. at Beijing, 1846). After 18336 the Diocese of Nanjing was governed by Apostolic administrators until 1856, when the episcopal see was abandoned. In 1736 the imperial state commenced a persecution which lasted a whole century. Fr. Tristan of Athemis was the first priest arrested. The superior of the mission, Father Anthony Joseph Henriquez, was pursued and surrendered on 21 December 1747. Both missionaries were strangled in Suzhou 17 September 1748. The process of their beatification was lengthy. Three Jesuit missionaries followed in Jiangnan, viz., Fathers Ignatius Perez, Martin Correa and Godefroy of Lambeckhoven, named Bishop of Nan-king on 15 May 1752, and consecrated at