CALABAR, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. — In Nigeria, at the estuary of the Cross. Missionary work in the territory of the apostolic vicariate of C. began with the missionary station of C., among the blacks, where schools were opened in 1903; they met with immediate success, despite the precedence and predominance of the Presbyterian mission. At Ogoja the station was founded in 1921 in an attempt to achieve the first conversion of the Munsci. On 9 July 1934, together with Benne, the area was established as the apostolic prefecture of C., with territory taken from the apostolic vicariate of Southern Nigeria, the two civil provinces of Ogoja to the east and C. to the south being detached from II. The progress of the mission, which became more marked after its establishment as an autonomous prefecture, led Propaganda, only four years later, to create another prefecture, Ogoja (v.), detaching the province of the same name from C. It was entrusted to the Irish Society of St. Patrick, whose Fathers had gone to Nigeria beginning in 1920. In 1947 it was raised to an apostolic vicariate.
It has an area of approximately 10,139 sq. km. and a population of nearly one million (899,503), according to the 1948 statistics, belonging to various pagan Bantu and Sudanese tribes; there are few Muslims (about one thousand), but the Protestants are numerous and influential (270,000); Catholics number 62,956, catechumens 29,458, with 27 Fathers, one of them indigenous, and 41 sisters, 20 of them native. Since 1937 the Catholics have been greatly developing their healthcare activities, with the collaboration of the new Medical Missionary Society of Mary (M.M.M.); educational activity is represented by 241 elementary schools with 21,515 pupils, 38 secondary schools with 2,125 students, two normal schools with 123 pupils, and one school for catechists with 41 candidates.