The
Prefecture Apostolic of Kwang-si (now spelled
Guangxi, ) was a Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction.
History
The mission of Kwang-si comprised the entire Chinese imperial province of that name, a very mountainous and extremely poor region. The province had a population of about ten million souls divided among several distinct races, the most remarkable of whom are the settlers from the
Canton, the Hakkas and the wild
Yao-tse and
Miao-tse.
The first missionary to Kwang-si was the
Jesuit Father
Michele de Ruggieri who in 1583 endeavoured without success to establish himself at the capital,
Kweilin. Fifty years later the Franciscan, Francesco d'Escalone, arrived at Wu-chou.
About the middle of the seventeenth century, Father
Andrew Xavier Koffler built a church at Kwei-lin and baptized at
Nan-ning, under the name of Constantine, a son of the
Emperor Yung-li, a pretender to the
Ming dynasty, who still combatted in the southern part of the empire the advancing
Manchu conquerors. Father
Michel Boym laboured in company with Father Koffler. In 1692 Father
Jacques Duval laboured to give further impulse to the work of his predecessors, and then came Fathers
Chamaya and
Lopez.
At the same time the Spanish
Augustinians established themselves at Kwei-lin and
Wu-chu, and the
Franciscans at
Ping-lo-fu. All were expelled in 1724 by
Emperor Yung Chen and Kwang-si thenceforth remained without missionaries for a hundred and thirty years.
In 1848 Kwang-si, united to the mission of......
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