BAHAMA (BAHAMAS, LUCAIE). — A coral archipelago stretching north of Cuba, from Florida to Haiti, consisting of about thirty larger islands (Andros, Great Abaco, Great B., etc.), 660 islets and 2,400 reefs (cayos), which together cover an area of 11,405 sq km (less than half of Sardinia). It has a temperate, uniform and healthy climate, which has made it a health resort, especially sought after by tourists from the United States and Canada. The main resources are sponge fishing and market gardening (tomatoes). The Bahamas form a British Crown Colony.
THE APOSTOLIC VICAR OF BAHAMA. — The Luciae or B. Islands were first (1808) entrusted to the Archbishop of Baltimore as Apostolic Delegate, then included in the Apostolic Vicariate of the Most Holy Trinity, created in 1818 (v. SPAGNA, archdiocese of), later incorporated (1837) into that of Jamaica (v.), subsequently aggregated to the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina (1858), and finally, by virtue of the *Sapienti consilio* (1908), officially entrusted to the Archbishop of New York, under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation; this, by decree of 21 March 1929, erected the Bahamas into an Apostolic Prefecture subject to the Propaganda Fide, which later decreed its elevation to a vicariate (15 Jan. 1940). Since February 1891, Benedictine monks from St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minn., sent by the Archbishop of New York, have worked there to govern the station at Nassau (founded in 1885). Since 1933, the jurisdiction has been under the Apostolic Delegation of the United States of America.
Area of the territory (Province of B. Islands): 11,405 sq km; total population: 74,448 inhabitants, mostly Negroes and Negroids of English speech. Catholics: 10,226 and 360 neophytes; 250 Byzantine rite dissenters; 62,437 Protestants of various denominations; 175 Jews and 1,000 pagans. Other data: 23 priests and two Benedictine lay brothers, 29 sisters, 49 catechists; 20 elementary schools with 2,091 pupils and 49 secondary schools with 166 pupils; a clinic, an orphanage.
The mission develops slowly both because of a shortage of personnel, given the great distances between the seven residential stations, and because of the considerable activity of the Catholics.