The region where the Augustinian Recollects arrived in order to establish the mission was very rural, with little industry, although with good communications.

The missions, social projects and solidarity actions are a constant in the action of the Augustinian Recollect Family. The Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine has always lived in mission, since its very birth was motivated by the opening of the first evangelization missions in the Philippines in the 17th century. Since then, he has carried out his evangelizing activity following the mandate of Jesus in the places today called “frontiers”: there where it is necessary to defend the dignity of human life, social justice, equal opportunities, the defense of the most vulnerable.

In the following years there was a fruitful epistolary relation between Shanghai, Manila, Rome and the apostolic vicars inside China. The provincial chapter in 1922 commissioned the new provincial Celestino Yoldi, so that he would ask the Holy See for a missionary territory in China. Propaganda Fide did not respond directly to his petition, but rather asked about the missions in Palawan (the Philippines), how many religious were prepared to go to China and what economic means they had to establish the mission. Whilst this was happening, the Recollects were immersed in the search for a concrete place. In 1923 monsignor Noé Tacconi, the apostolic vicar for West Henan, offered part of the mission to the Recollects.

Hopes are reborn and rapidly the efforts are multiplied. Tacconi, the Apostolic Delegate, and the Director General of the Institute for Foreign Missions offered favourable reports for the handover. On the 15th of November 1923 Propaganda Fide authorizes the entrance of the Augustinian Recollects into the north-east of Henan. From 1924 they select the most capable religious to respond to such a hard task.

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