Iquitos, Apostolic Vicariate of

IQUITOS, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - Located in the north-eastern region of Peru, it comprises the territory of the civil province of Alto y Bajo Amazonas, consisting of a great plain crossed by the river of the same name and covered with countless lakes, which make it marshy. The evangelization of this area began at the end of the 19th century.

The Ordinaries of Peru in 1896, responding to an appeal by Pope Leo XIII, who called for the conversion of the savages, founded in Lima a work for the propagation of the faith in the north-eastern regions of that nation, presided over by Fr. Soto of the Picpus Missionaries. The latter prepared the convention between Peru and the Holy See (1 May 1899) concerning the missions to be erected of St. Leo of the Amazons, Ucayali, Urubamba and Madre de Dios (present-day Porto Maldonado). The prefecture of St. Leo of the Amazons was erected on 5 February 1900 and entrusted to the Augustinian Hermits, who arrived on the spot in March 1901 and immediately began a fruitful apostolic work; but, given the extent of the territory, they could not evangelize it suitably. In 1912 the north-eastern part was detached from the prefecture, which had never been evangelized, and the autonomous mission of Putumayo was erected, entrusted to the English Franciscans, who, overcome by the practical difficulties encountered, abandoned it; consequently it was again incorporated (1922) into the prefecture of St. Leo of the Amazons, erected the year before as an apostolic vicariate. In 1945 the aforementioned mission was restored more or less within the same limits, but with the name of St. Joseph of the Amazons, and was entrusted to the Canadian Franciscans. In the same year the apostolic vicariate of St. Leo was named I., from the city of residence of the Ordinary. The inhabitants of this vicariate number around 60,000, according to the statistics of 1949, of whom the majority are baptized. They are assisted by 15 Augustinian priests, 24 nuns, 100 catechists, 254 teachers. The apostolic work is made difficult by the unhealthiness of the climate and by the lack of means of communication. The populations are naturally good, but rendered feeble in the fulfillment of their duties as Catholics by terrible diseases: marsh fevers, pernicious, tertian, tubercular and beri-beri.

Antonio Mazza