SENDAI, DIOCESE of. — Situated on the island of Hondo, it comprises four civil prefectures, namely: Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and Aomori.
This mission was established as an apostolic vicariate under the name of Hakodate on 5 February 1895 and, on 27 April of the same year, when the ecclesiastical hierarchy was constituted, was elevated to a diocese.
On 15 August 1912, the three civil provinces of Niigata, Yamagata, and Akita were detached from it and became part of Niigata (v.); on 12 February 1915, the territory of the present vicariate of Sapporo—except for the province of Oshima with the city of Hakodate—together with the Kuril Islands and the southern part of the Sakalin Peninsula. On 9 March 1936, the diocese of Hakodate assumed the name of S., with the definitive transfer of the episcopal see to the city of the same name. By a decree of Propaganda Fide dated 19 June 1952, the aforementioned civil province of Oshima with the city of Hakodate was detached from the diocese of S. and annexed to the vicariate of Sapporo.
The first to begin the work of evangelization in this region were the Jesuits. In 1891, the priests of the Society of the Foreign Missions of Paris arrived there, to whom the development and missionary organization of S. are due. In 1928, the first Canadian Dominicans arrived; they completely replaced the priests of the M.E.P. in the pastoral care and government of the diocese, until its transfer to the Japanese secular clergy, which took place « de facto » on 16 January 1941 and « de jure » on 20 July 1950.
The population is 6,825,938. There are 6,613 Catholics. There are 15,000 Protestants, among whom the sects of the Anglicans, Presbyterians, under the Japanese name « Nippon Kirisuto Kyokai », and Methodists are especially flourishing. There are 10,000 Greek Orthodox. The missionary personnel consists of 54 priests, 11 of them Cistercians; 47 brothers, 39 of them Japanese; 343 women religious; 11 major seminarians; 17 catechists; 7 physicians; and 11 nurses. There are 7 orphanages, 6 pharmacies, 3 elementary schools, 7 middle schools, and 6 secondary schools. A newspaper entitled Taimatsu is published there, with a circulation of 1,000 copies.