MANDALAY, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. - Like the apostolic vicariate of southern Burma (Rangoon), that of M., erected on 19 July 1870 for northern Burma, derives from the division of the apostolic vicariate of Ava and Pegù, and received its present name on 5 Jan. 1939.
The entire territory is traversed from north to south by the Irrawaddy River and has a flat area extending chiefly along the Irrawaddy River, while the other part, toward the borders of India, is mountainous and sparsely populated.
The mission, entrusted to the Society for Foreign Missions of Paris, has an area of 22,000 sq. km., with 5,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 4,300,000 are Buddhists, 270,000 animists, 100,000 Hindus, 80,000 Muslims, 10,000 Protestants, and 15,000 Catholics; it comprises 22 quasi-parishes, 29 principal stations and 90 secondary ones, with 8 churches and 70 chapels, served by 21 indigenous priests, 17 of the Paris Foreign Missions, and 6 Salesians, assisted by 8 brothers and about a hundred Sisters. It has a minor seminary, 32 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, 6 higher schools, and 4 vocational schools. The mission also has various charitable and welfare institutions, including 1 leper colony; it also has 7 confraternities, and pious associations and Catholic Action associations are not lacking. The movement of conversion, very difficult among Buddhists, on the other hand offers good hopes among animists.