The emergence and development of Catholic communities in Northeast China have deep historical roots dating back to the 14th century, when the first Chinese Christians from Mongolia arrived in Manchuria. The opening of northern territories to Han Chinese and subsequent waves of migration to Manchuria driven by geopolitical events in the second half of the 19th century played a significant role in establishing and consolidating of the Catholic Church in those lands. The development of Catholic communities followed two complementary paths: 1) the work of foreign missionaries, who were sent to establish parishes and support local communities; 2) the work of Chinese immigrants who converted to Catholicism in other regions of China and brought their faith to the northeastern territories, where they established house churches in villages and settlements. Based on archival records and reports from Western missionaries, as well as materials from the archives of The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, which oversaw a significant number of Catholic missions in Manchuria, the article attempts to reconstruct the early history of the emergence and development of Catholic communities in Northeast China. It also details their characteristic features that influenced the organization and structure of local Catholic settlements in the region.
Key words: Roman Catholic Church, missionary activity, inculturation of Christianity, religious landscape, house church, Catholic settlement, Paris Foreign Missions Society, Northeast China, Manchuria, China, France
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662-2024-4-5-24
About the author
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Nikolai V. Chirkov – religious studies scholar, PhD, Associate Professor at the Institute of St. Tomas Aquinas (Žilina, Slovakia), Department of the Pontifical Salesian University (Turin, Italy); Head of the Frontier Research Laboratory, Amur State University (Blagoveshchensk, Russia); 27 Sebastian Caboto str., Torino, 10129, Italy; сhirkovniko@gmail.com. |