NATAL, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. – The southeastern coast of Africa, discovered around Christmas 1497 by Vasco de Gama and called Terra Natalis, was not reached by the Portuguese mission of Mozambique. Only in the 19th century, with the arrival of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, did missionary activity begin in this region. On 15 November 1850 Pius IX erected the apostolic vicariate of N., assigning to it the whole of the English southern African territory not included in the two vicariates of the Cape Colony.
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate erected the first missionary stations there both among the whites of Burban and Pietermaritzburg and among the blacks. From there, despite the persistent obstacles raised by the Boers, they extended their activity to the pastoral care of the whites in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and the diamond city of Kimberley in Griqualand.
In 1861 they began the mission of Basutoland, which subsequently developed to such an extent as to become the most flourishing indigenous mission in southern Africa. For the mission among the blacks, in 1880 Bishop C. Jolivet called in the Trappists (v. MARIANNHILL).
On 4 June 1886 the first division of the vicariate of N. took place. The apostolic vicariate of the Orange Free State was separated from it; in 1918 it took the name of Kimberley and also included Basutoland, Griqualand, and Bechuanaland; as did the apostolic prefecture
of Transvaal, which in 1904 became an apostolic vicariate in the Boer state of the same name. On 8 May 1894 the apostolic prefecture of Basutoland was separated from the vicariate of the Orange Free State; it was raised to an apostolic vicariate in 1909. On 26 November the apostolic prefecture of Kroonstad was entrusted to the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit; it became an apostolic vicariate on 2 April 1935 and was divided on 12 February 1948 into two apostolic vicariates: Kroonstad, entrusted to the Dominicans, and Bethlehem, which remained in the hands of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. With the erection of the hierarchy in 1951, the vicariate of the Oblates of Kimberley was divided into the archdiocese of Bloemfontein and the diocese of Kimberley. In the Transvaal, on 22 December 1910, the Benedictines took charge of the northern part, under the name of Northern Transvaal; it was raised to a nullius abbey on 13 June 1939 under the name of Pietersburg. On 12 June 1923 the eastern part of Transvaal was entrusted to the Missionaries, Sons of the Sacred Heart, as the apostolic prefecture of Lydenburg; it became an apostolic vicariate on 9 December 1948. The part remaining with the Oblates was divided on 9 April 1948 into the two vicariates of Johannesburg and Pretoria. The latter was entrusted to the care of the secular clergy.
In 1886 the colony proper, Zululand, Swaziland, and several districts in the east of the Cape Colony remained in the vicariate of N. In 1914 the mission of Swaziland was entrusted to the Servites; it was subsequently separated, on 19 April 1923, as an apostolic prefecture, and was raised to an apostolic vicariate on 15 March 1939. On 27 August 1921 the apostolic prefecture of Zululand was separated from the vicariate of N. and entrusted to the Benedictines of St. Ottilia; it was raised on 11 December 1923, under the name of Eshowe, to an apostolic vicariate. On 10 September 1921 the apostolic vicariate of Mariannhill was also separated, where the religious of Mariannhill, formerly Trappists, had laboured since 1880. Thus the apostolic vicariate of N. was reduced to the central part of the province of N.; there the Oblates, being able to intensify their apostolic work, brought the pastoral care of the whites and the mission among the blacks to a high degree of development.
On 11 January 1951, with the erection of the South African hierarchy, N. was raised to an archdiocese under the name of Durban. With this erection of the hierarchy, the Holy See established within the territory of the former apostolic vicariate of N., erected in 1850, 3 archdioceses and 12 dioceses.
The area is 56,800 sq. km., with a population of approximately 1,300,000 inhabitants, of whom 75,575 are Catholics, 1,976 catechumens, and the remainder for the most part Protestants. National priests 14, foreign priests 74, brothers 28, sisters 479, catechists 83, teachers 535, elementary schools 130; secondary schools 15. Primary stations 43, secondary stations 130, churches 28, chapels 37; dispensaries 6, hospitals 4; orphanages 4.