BLUEFIELDS, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF — It was erected on 2 December 1913, when it was made autonomous from the diocese of León in Nicaragua; it is suffragan to Managua and is directed by the Capuchins.
The territory, comprising the department of Zelaya, formerly B., the comarca of Cabo Gracias a Dios, and the Atlantic islands belonging to Nicaragua, including the Corn Islands, formerly part of the mission sui iuris of S. Andrea and Providenza, covers 70,300 sq. km. Total population (approximate 1941 census): 41,654 (Miskitos, Black people of African and Antillean origin, mestizos, mulattoes), including 20,963 Catholics (mostly Miskitos), 15,960 Protestants, 38 Muslims, a few Jews, and 3,860 pagans. The 18 Capuchin priests (from the regular provinces of Barcelona and Monte Calvario, Detroit, U.S.A., the latter having been entrusted with the vicariate since 1942) serve 9 quasi-parishes (with 20 secondary stations), assisted by 8 Brothers of the Christian Schools and 15 Sisters of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd from Barcelona, 104 catechists, and 29 teachers assigned to one primary school (89 female pupils) and two secondary schools (186 pupils), as well as to a hospital (95 beds). The Boletín Dominical is published there (2,500 copies).
Before the arrival of the Capuchins, the Catholics had been left spiritually abandoned owing to the lack of diocesan clergy, while Protestant proselytism was becoming established, especially through the work of the Moravian Brethren (from 1849 onward). Systematic evangelization among the Miskitos is intensifying, while elsewhere the mission has caused public and private morals to flourish again, with an increase in legitimate marriages, periodically reaching even the most remote regions despite the extreme dangers of travel and the rigors of the tropical climate. The missionaries profitably direct the government primary school of B. and the local university-level institute.