NATCHEZ, DIOCESE OF. — In the United States of America, a suffragan of New Orleans, it comprises the territory of the State of Mississippi, with an area of 46,340 square miles and a total population (1949) of 2,349,232 inhabitants. Catholics (1951) number 50,559.
In the 67 parishes and 65 missions, 176 priests work (1951) (among whom 95 are religious from twelve different congregations); there are also 2 hospitals, 2 orphanages, 1 school of the Society of the Divine Word for blacks, and 21 female congregations.
The diocese was erected on 28 July 1837. But the work of evangelization began in the 17th century with the expeditions of the Jesuit Fr. Marquette, of R. R. C. de La Salle and P. L. d'Iberville, and the work of the Capuchins, the Jesuits, and secular priests (among whom the secular priests SS. Cosmas and N. Foucault, and the Jesuits Frs. Du Poisson, G. Souart, and A. Senat, were martyred). Several priests also came from Salamanca, but when the territory passed from Spain to the United States, the missions were almost entirely abandoned. The first bishop was Abp. Giov. M. Gius. Chanche, Sulpician, born in Baltimore on 4 October 1795 to parents who had emigrated from Santo Domingo. He was consecrated on 14 March 1841, and upon his arrival in Natchez he found in the entire State only one priest, Fr. J. Brogard.