CANELOS, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. - The mission of St. Joseph of C. in the Republic of Ecuador was founded in 1624 by the Dominican fathers, who two centuries later, because of the hostility of the government, had to leave the works they had begun and withdraw in order to avoid serious persecution.

They returned there in 1827, seeking to revive, among the small Christian communities, the religious life that had in the meantime grown dormant. From 1869 the Jesuits of Napo worked there, later forced to abandon the territory for political reasons. In 1886 the mission was entrusted once more to the Dominican fathers and erected as an apostolic prefecture. In 1929 the parish of Macas was united to it, detached from the diocese of Riobamba, of which the Dominicans already had the spiritual care; a year later the said parish was aggregated to the apostolic vicariate of Mendez and Gualaquiza. The mission has an area of 98,000 sq. km.; the population amounts to 17,000 inhabitants, of whom 11,000 are Catholics, 280 Protestants and the rest pagans.

Seven Dominican fathers and as many brothers work there. There are three schools with 211 pupils, and 12 churches.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: AAS, 22 (1930), pp. 480-80; GM, p. 313; MC, p. 65; archivio di Propaganda Fide, Prospectus status missionum, 1948, pos. prot. n. 2770/48.

Antonio Mazza

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Canelos, Apostolic Prefecture of

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