62. – ENCYCLOPEDIA CATHOLICA. – IV.
city in the State of Iowa, United States of America. Its territory, covering approximately 45,250 sq. km., extends in the northern part of the same State with the counties of Polk, Jasper, Poweshiek, Iowa, Johnson, Cedar and Clinton, and to the east with the counties of Kossuth, Humboldt, Webster and Boone; it has as its suffragans the dioceses of Nebraska and of Michigan, namely Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Davenport, Sioux City and Des Moines.
In 1948, out of a population of over 800,000 inhabitants, the archdiocese counted 140,620 Catholics under the direction of 1 auxiliary bishop, 362 diocesan priests and 35 religious priests, with 241 parishes, 40 chapels, 43 missions, 7 stations, 2 seminaries, 4 colleges, 4 academies, 79 high schools and 108 parochial schools. In 1946 there were 769 conversions. There are 3 male religious communities, among which a Trappist abbey of strict observance at Peosta, and 17 female communities.
Explored and evangelized in the 17th and 18th centuries by missionaries from Canada, this territory of the country was opened to Catholic settlement only after its annexation to the United States, that is, from 1833 onwards. Thanks to its lead mines, D. attracted many settlers. Among these, the Catholics came especially from France, Germany and Ireland; upon them and upon the native peoples, the zeal of the Dominican Samuel Mazzuchelli was poured out. As the number of parishes grew, on 28 July 1837 the eastern part of what was then Wisconsin was detached from the diocese of St. Louis to form a suffragan diocese with its see in D. When St. Louis was elevated to a metropolitan see on 20 July 1847, D. became its suffragan. Subsequent divisions led to the formation of the dioceses of Davenport (1851), Sioux City (1902) and Des Moines (1911), until D. itself became a metropolitan see on 15 June 1893.