APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF SWAZILAND. - In South African territory under British protection, enclosed between Transvaal and Mozambique.
The first two missionaries arrived there in 1913 and at the beginning of 1914 they established the first station at Mbabane. There were then no indigenous Catholics. 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—namely 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 raised to the status of the Diocese of Bremersdorp, suffragan of the Archdiocese of Pretoria.
It has an area of 29,780 sq. km., inhabited by about 200,000 natives and 4,300 Europeans. The natives belong to the Bantu race of the Zulu group and speak Swazi and Tonga. The Catholics number: Europeans 84, coloured 345, natives 13,931.