Roman Catholicism in Kazakhstan
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The Roman Catholic Church in Kazakhstan is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Curia in Rome.
There are approximately 100,000 Catholics[citation needed] in Kazakhstan, less than 1% of the total population. The country is divided into three dioceses including one archdiocese. In addition there is an Apostolic Administration.
[edit] History
In the second century AD, Christian Roman prisoners of war were taken to what is now Kazakhstan after their defeat by the Sassanid Persians.[1]
In 1307, Pope Clement V sent seven friars having the rank of bishop, who were to consecrate John of Montecorvino as "Archbishop of Cambaluc and Primate of the Far East"; only Andrew of Perugia, Gerard, and Peregrinus reached China in 1308 and consecrated John of Montecorvino; a Bishopric was erected at Zaitun in Fujian, which was occupied in turn by Gerard (d. 1313), Peregrinus (d. 1322), and Andrew of Perugia; John of Montecorvino died in 1333 and was succeeded by Nicholas, a theologian from Paris, who arrived in China with twenty-six friars and six lay brothers. A mission was also created at Ili-baluc in Central Asia with Richard of Burgundy as its bishop, but it was later destroyed. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
A Vatican source has basically the same information, but the name of the Bishop is slightly different: The Catholic community here (in Kazakhstan) existed as early as 1300 when a diocese was entrusted to the care of Franciscan friar Henry of Bourgogne, who was later martyred with the entire Catholic community. The see of the "Ili-baluc" diocese was in Almaliq, (later known as Kuldja, present-day Yining) in the upper part of the Ili valley, and today in Western China. Later, from 1888 until 1922, the Catholic Mission in today's Xinjiang in China ("Eastern Turkestan" / "Chinese Turkestan") was called the I-li Mission. It also had Kuldja/Yining at its centre.
[edit] References
- ^ Zenit Staff (2008-04-17). Church in Kazakhstan Affirms Asiatic Identity. Zenit News Agency. Retrieved on [[2008-04-17 "Roman prisoners of war taken after a defeat battling the Persians included Christians"]].
[edit] External links
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