TIMMINS, DIOCESI di. — Diocese and city in the northern part of the provinces of Ontario and Québec (Canada).
Today the diocese of T. has a population of 150,000, of whom 90,029 are Catholics; it has a clergy of 94 diocesan priests and 30 religious (Oblates of Mary Immaculate and Stigmatines) serving 74 parishes. There are 63 churches with a resident priest, 11 missions, 4 hospitals, 1 orphanage, 3 agricultural schools, 1 normal school for teachers, and 1 domestic-science school. The total area of the diocese of T. is 32,000 square miles.
The apostolic vicariate of Temiskamingue was erected on 22 September 1908 by separation from Pembroke. It was subsequently elevated to the diocese of Haileybury, with the same boundaries, by Benedict XV on 31 December 1915. The diocese of Haileybury was divided to form the dioceses of Hearst and Amos and the apostolic vicariate of James Bay on 3 December 1938. At the same time, part of it was also given to the diocese of Trois-Rivières, and on 10 December 1938 the see of Haileybury was transferred to T. (Ontario) and the name of the diocese changed to that of T.
The Gospel was preached in the territory for the first time by Fr. de Bellefeuille, a Sulpician, and by the priest Dupuy. Annual visits were subsequently made until the Missionaries Oblates of Mary Immaculate were entrusted with the territory in 1843. The greatest missionary was Fr. Giovanni Nicola Laverlochère, O. M. I. The missionaries established themselves at Fort Temiskamingue and then moved to Ville Marie in 1886. The first apostolic vicar was Mgr. Elie-Anicet Latupile.