SWAZILAND, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - In South African territory under British protection, enclosed between the Transvaal and Mozambique.

The first two Servite missionaries went there in 1913 and from the beginning of 1914 they established the first station at Mbabane. At that time there was no native Catholic. On 19 April 1923 the territory of Swaziland was detached from the apostolic vicariate of Natal, now the archdiocese of Durban, to form the apostolic prefecture of Swaziland, entrusted to the Servites. On 13 July 1938 three other civil districts, Piet Retief, Ingwavuma and Ubombo, were annexed to the prefecture. On 15 March 1939 it was erected as a vicariate and on 11 January 1951 it was elevated to the diocese of Bremersdorp, suffragan of the archdiocese of Pretoria.

It has an area of 29,780 sq. km., inhabited by about 290,000 natives and 4,300 Europeans. The natives are of the Bantu race, of the Zulu group, and speak Swazi and Ronga. The Catholics are: 84 Europeans, 345 people of color, 13,931 natives.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: AAS, 15 (1923), pp. 201-202; 30 (1938), pp. 348-49; 31 (1939), pp. 216-17; 43 (1951), pp. 257-63; MC, 1950, pp. 161-162; The Cath. directory of South Africa 1952, Capetown 1952, pp. 309-15.

Saverio Paventi

@incollection{ec11_swaziland_vicariato_apostolico, author = {Paventi, Saverio}, title = {Swaziland, vicariato apostolico di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1662}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/swaziland-vicariato-apostolico-di} }

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Swaziland, Apostolic Vicariate of

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