PORTO LUIGI, DIOCESE OF
The island of Mauritius and the other annexed islets (St. Brandon, Rodriguez, Agaléga, Farquhar, the Chagos Archipelago, Diego Garcia, Six Îles, Peros Banhos, Salomon), which form the Diocese of P. L., belong to the Mascarene Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar.
Mauritius, already known to the Arabs, was discovered in 1507 by the Portuguese Diego Fernandez Pereira, who called it Ilha do Cisne (Swan Island), and was later visited by Pedro Mascarenhas. Annexed to the Netherlands in 1598 by Admiral Van Warwick, who named it Mauritius in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, and later abandoned, it was occupied in 1715 by the French, who called it Île de France. The Vincentians (Lazarists) took charge of it from 1722 to 1819, with delegated faculties from the Archbishop of Paris, to whom the mission had been entrusted by the Holy See. In 1810 it passed under the British Crown. According to the act of capitulation, the inhabitants retained their religion, customs, laws, and the Catholic religion remained the state religion, in accordance with the Concordat of 1801. The island then resumed its name of Mauritius. In 1819 Propaganda Fide made P. L. the center of a vast apostolic vicariate, entrusted to the Benedictines, which included Mauritius, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, the Seychelles, and all of Australia. As new missions were created, the territory was successively reduced, and in 1847 it was erected into a diocese, which in 1916 was entrusted to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. The Diocese of P. L. is immediately subject to the Holy See and currently has an area of 2,080 sq. km.; a population of approximately 473,000 inhabitants, of whom 160,000 are Catholic with 380 catechumens, 70,000 Muslims, 220,000 Hindus, 10,000 Chinese—among the latter, efforts are particularly made to foster a fruitful movement of conversions; 27 diocesan priests, 28 from the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, 6 Jesuits; 2 indigenous lay brothers and 15 foreign ones, 303 sisters, of whom 233 are indigenous and 70 foreign, with 12 novices; 17 major seminarians, of whom 9 study in Paris and 8 in Rome, and 4 minor seminarians; 259 catechists; 37 parishes; an impressive array of welfare institutions; 59 elementary schools, 8 middle schools; and periodicals with a circulation of 8,800 copies.