NATAL, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - The south-eastern coast of Africa, discovered around Christmas 1497 by Vasco de Gama and named *Terra Natalis*, was not reached by the Portuguese mission from 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 all the part of southern Africa under British rule, not included in the two vicariates of the Cape Colony.
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate established the first mission stations here, both among the white settlers of Durban and Pietermaritzburg and among the black populations. From here, despite the persistent opposition of the Boers, they extended their activity to the white settlements in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and the diamond city of Kimberley in Griqualand.
In 1861, they began the mission in Basutoland, which subsequently developed into the most flourishing native 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 dismembered; in 1918 it took the name of Kimberley, including also Basutoland, Griqualand, and Bechuanaland, and the Apostolic Prefecture of Transvaal, which from 1904 was an Apostolic Vicariate in the Boer State of the same name. From the Vicariate of the Orange Free State, the Apostolic Prefecture of Basutoland was dismembered on 8 May 1894, elevated 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 a vicariate on 2 April 1935, which was divided on 12 February 1948 into two Apostolic Vicariates, namely 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, the Benedictines, on 22 December 1910, took over the northern part under the name of Northern Transvaal, elevated to an abbazia nullius on 13 June 1939 under the name of Pietersburg. On 12 June 1923, the Missionaries Sons of the Sacred Heart were entrusted with the eastern part of the Transvaal as the Apostolic Prefecture of Lydenburg, which became a vicariate on 9 December 1948. The part remaining with the Oblates, on 9 April 1948, was divided into the two vicariates of Johannesburg and Pretoria. The latter was entrusted to the care of the secular clergy.
In 1886, the strictly so-called colony, Zululand, Swaziland, and some districts in the east of the Cape Colony remained with the Vicariate of N. In 1914, the Servites were entrusted with the mission of Swaziland, which was later, on 19 April 1923, dismembered as an Apostolic Prefecture, erected as a vicariate from 15 March 1939. On 27 August 1921, the Apostolic Prefecture of Zululand was separated from the Vicariate of N., entrusted to the Benedictines of St. Ottilien, elevated on 11 December 1923 under the name of Eshowe to an Apostolic Vicariate, and on 10 September 1921 the Apostolic Vicariate of Mariannhill, 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., where the Oblates, intensifying their apostolic work, greatly developed the care of the whites and the mission among the blacks.
On 11 January 1951, with the erection of the South African hierarchy, N. was elevated 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 about 1,300,000 inhabitants, of whom 75,575 are Catholics, 1,976 catechumens, and the rest mostly Protestants. Native priests 14, foreign priests 74, brothers 28, sisters 479, catechists 83, teachers 535, elementary schools 130; 15 secondary schools. Primary stations 43, secondary 130, churches 28, chapels 37; dispensaries 6, hospitals 4; orphanages 4.