History
This land of lakes and forests, possessing timber and mineral resources but sparsely inhabited by Indians, Métis, and a few whites, was first visited by pioneer missionaries in the nineteenth century, when Mgr. Provencher, Bishop of St. Boniface, sent Abbé Thibault to Île-à-la-Crosse (1845), Abbé Louis-Francois Richer Lafleche (later Bishop of Three Rivers) to explore the Cumberland district (1846), and Father Taché, O.M.I. (later Archbishop of St. Boniface), to join Lafleche at Ile-à-la-Crosse (1846), and thence visit Reindeer Lake (1847). These and surrounding missions were subsequently served by Oblates of the Manitoba or Alberta-Saskatchewan Provinces.
Prominent among these since 1887 has been the Rev. Ovide Charleboix whose administrative capacities, proved during sixteen years' ministry at Fort Cumberland, led in 1900 to his nomination as Visitor of the Cumberland District Indian Missions, in 1903, to his appointment as director of Saint Michael's Indian Industrial School at Duck Lake, and in 1910 to his preconization as titular Bishop of Berenice and Vicar Apostolic of Keewatin, with residence at The Pas.
There were in the vicariate in the early 20th century 15 Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate, 8 Oblate Brothers of Mary Immaculate, 12 Grey Nuns (Montreal), 16 Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart and Mary Immaculate (St. Boniface), 4 more Grey Nuns (St. Hyacinth), 10 churches with 16 out-stations; 11,000 Indians, Dene, Cree and Eskimo, of whom 7000 were Catholics and 5000 non-Catholics or pagans (chiefly Eskimo). Indian boarding schools at Norway House (Oblate Sisters, 20 pupils), Beauval Residential School at Lac La Plonge, a general hospital at Le Pas, a Catholic (French-English) school at Le Pas .
It was renamed and promoted Metropolitan See of Keewatin-Le Pas in 1967; its archbishop now has an ecclesiastical province with three suffragan bishops in Churchill-Baie d'Hudson, Labrador City-Schefferville, and Moosonee.
Read more about this topic: Apostolic Vicariate Of Keewatin
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