MISURATA, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. - It is situated in the eastern coastal part of Tripolitania. It was erected on 22 June 1939 from part of the territory of the then apostolic vicariate of Tripolitania (today of Tripoli, v.) and entrusted to the Friars Minor.
It has an area of slightly more than 100,000 sq. km., with a population (in 1950) of approximately 261,700 inhabitants. Catholics 6,701, of whom 44 Maltese and 6,657 foreigners; Protestants 164; Jews 150; Muslims more than 254,000; priests 10, all foreigners, of whom 6 belong to the Milan province of the Friars Minor and the others to other provinces of the same Order; foreign lay brothers 2; foreign nuns 17; principal mission stations 11, secondary stations 7; churches 4, chapels 14; Catholic Action is in its beginnings.