PATAGONIA. — From Spanish patagones = large feet, a characteristic of the indigenous Tehuelche Indians. Region at the extreme southern tip of South America, discovered in 1520 by the Portuguese navigator F. Magellano (Magalhaes); belonging to the Argentine Republic and, to a very small extent, to Chile. It is bounded on the north by the Río Colorado, on the south by the Strait of Magellan, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and on the east by the Atlantic, covering an area of approximately 1 million sq. km. Population: approximately 210,000 inhabitants; its economy is essentially pastoral.
Evangelization. — The mission among the Indians of Patagonia began in 1880 with the foundation by the Salesians—who had entered the territory with the Argentine army in 1879—of the residences of Viedma and Patagones on the Río Negro. The Argentine government had resolved to subjugate those brigand tribes, which until then had made any colonization of the south impossible. D. Domenico Milanesio acted as a mediator of peace, satisfactorily for both parties, and thus opened the way to the Gospel.
Since the distance from Buenos Aires, on which the mission of Patagonia depended ecclesiastically, was too great, d. Bosco took the necessary steps in Rome and Buenos Aires to obtain the establishment of independent missionary territories. On 16 November 1883, the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern and Central Patagonia and the Apostolic Prefecture of Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego were established. The first apostolic vicar of the former vicariate was, from 30 November of the same year, mons. CALÒ, PIETRO (v.), who in 1875 had led the first group of Salesians toward Argentina. On his second journey to Argentina, on 1 February 1885, after his consecration, he was accompanied by 18 Salesians and 6 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. From the beginning, mons. Cagliero protected the indigenous peoples from exploitation by the colonists and devoted special attention to the young. During his administration, 47,000 people were baptized in the vicariate, including 15,000 indigenous persons. Since the vicariate was increasingly becoming a colony of whites and the Indians had almost all converted, in 1899 the territory was once again annexed to the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and divided into rural deaneries administered by Salesians. The same fate befell the prefecture of Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, which was suppressed in 1916. The prefect, mons. Giovanni Fagnano, had taken charge of the mission of the Falkland Islands in 1888. In 1916, the Argentine portion was organized as a rural vicariate, while the Chilean portion was transformed into the Apostolic Vicariate of Magellan. In three prophetic dreams, in 1872, 1883, and 1885, d. Bosco had foreseen the entire missionary, cultural, and economic development of Patagonia. Today, practically all the Indians are Catholics, and most of them live apart in reductions, in very poor economic, intellectual, and spiritual conditions. The Salesians visit them periodically for religious instruction and the administration of the Sacraments. The condition of the Araucanians is somewhat better.
On 20 April 1934, the Diocese of Viedma, suffragan of La Plata, was established for the Argentine portion. The Apostolic Vicariate of Magellan in the Chilean portion was elevated on 21 January 1947 to a diocese under the name of Punta Arena. The Falkland Islands, however, a British possession, still depend on the S. C. of Propaganda.