BOISE CITY, DIOCESE OF. — In Idaho (U.S.A.), a suffragan of Portland in Oregon. On 25 August 1893 the Apostolic Vicariate of Idaho, created on 3 March 1868, was raised to the status of a diocese under the title of Boise City. The vast territory that constitutes this diocese covers an area of more than 225,698 sq. km. and had its first Catholic church in the 19th century through the work of two Italian Jesuits, Frs. Gazzoli and Ravalli, who built it among the Coeur d’Alene Indians, 97 km from the lake of the same name.
Statistics: 22,131 Catholics out of a total population of 500,000; 47 parishes; 54 diocesan priests and 17 religious.
XVII (Supplement), 1922, p. 115; J. H. O’Donnell, The Catholic Hierarchy of the United States 1790-1922, Washington 1922, pp. 33 ff.; E. V. Cauwenbergh, s.V. in DHG, IX, col. 574; The Official Catholic Directory, New York 1939, part 2, pp. 256-57. Corrado Morin