SAULT STE. MARIE, DIOCESE OF. — A city and diocese in the province of Ontario, Canada. The diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, suffragan of Kingston, was erected on 16 September 1904. At the time of its foundation the diocese had 26,964 Catholics (of whom 20,000 were French-speaking), 50 churches, 3 hospitals, 30 parishes and 50 missions.
The Franciscans were the first missionaries in the Nipissing region with Fr Guillaume Poublain (1622) and Fr Jacques de la Foyer (1624). The Jesuits Isaac Jogues (canonized) and Charles Raymbault were sent by their superiors to Sault Ste. Marie and in 1668 the Jesuits founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie. The principal apostle of the “Algonquins” at Nipissing and Georgian Bay was Fr Claude Pijart, SJ (cf. also MARQUETTE, Diocese of).
Today the diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, whose episcopal see is at North Bay (Ontario), has a Catholic population of 127,063 scattered over a territory of 25,000 sq km. Catholics of British origin number 21,134 and those of French origin 63,148. There are 106 diocesan priests and 62 religious (Jesuits, Redemptorists, Resurrectionists). There are also 75 churches, 4 colleges, 8 hospitals, 3 industrial schools for Indigenous people and 9 women’s congregations.