This vicariate which was detached from the Athabaska-Mackenzie Vicariate in 1901 and intrusted to Mgr Gabriel Breynat, Titular Bishop of Adramytus, consecrated 6 April 1902, is bounded on the west by the Rocky Mountains, on the south by 60º latitude, on the east by the water-shed and is unlimited on the north towards the pole. It comprised the Yukon, which was not erected into a prefecture Apostolic until 1908. Through this immense territory, which has an area of over half a million square miles, are scattered six nomad tribes: the Montagnais, the Slave, the Flat-dog-side, the Hare Indian, the Loucheux, and the Eskimo, making a total population of 6000 souls. Leaving out the Eskimo trite which is still pagan and nearly four hundred Protestant red-skins, all the other tribes embraced the Catholic Faith which was introduced by the Oblates, who began mission work here in 1858. The difficulties of Christianizing this land of perpetual snow and long winters, when the thermometer sometimes falls to 68º below zero, are readily understood when one knows that the only means of travel are dogs trained to harness and that the heavens are the only roof. Means of communication are so poor that from September to July there is but one mail delivery in Lower Mackenzie and provisions are brought by steamboat but once a year. Hence the difficulties of travel, the absolute lack of local resources, the severity of the climate contribute to make this vicariate the poorest in the whole world, living on charity, more especially on pecuniary help sent from France by the Propagation of Faith. Owing to this assistance the vicar Apostolic with his twenty Oblate fathers and twenty-one brothers can maintain twelve missions where the Indians gather every year. In 1867 the Montreal Gray Nuns came and shared the hardships of the missionaries, establishing an orphanage at the xxyyyk.htm">Providence Mission, where they are now teaching seventy-six children under their care. In 1903 they opened another orphanage at the St. Joseph Mission, Fort Resolution, the vicar Apostolic's residence, where forty-five children are being instructed. There are twenty-one nuns working in the mission.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online