SIONITA
16
SIOUX FALLS
Aigle that belong to the Canton of Vaud. In 1911
the diocese had 11 deaneries, 125 parishes, 70 chap-
laincies, 208 secular priests, 135 regular priests and
professed, about 120,000 Catholics. Nearly 30 per
cent of the population of the diocese speak German,
and nearly 65 per cent French; the language of the
rest of the population is Itahan. The bishop is elected
by the denominationally mixed Great Council from a
list of four candidates presented by the cathedral chap-
ter, and the election is laid before the pope for con-
firmation. The cathedral chapter consists of ten
canons; in addition five rectors are included among
the cathedral clergy. The clergy are trained at a
seminary for priests at Sion that has six ecclesiastical
professors and twelve resident students; there are also
six theological students studying at the University of
Innsbruck. The religious orders of men in the dio-
cese are: Augustinian Canons, with houses on the
Great St. Bernard, the Simplon, and at Martigny,
containing altogether 45 priests, 6 professed and 7 lay-
brothers; Capuchins, at Sion and Saint-Maurice,
numbering 22 priests, 6 students of theologj',and9 lay-
brothers. The exempt abbey of Augustinian Canons
at Saint-Maurice contains 46 priests, 9 professed and
lay-brothers. The orders and congregations of nuns
in the diocese are: Bernardines at Colombay; Hospital
Sisters at Sion ; Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul at Saint-
Maurice; Franciscan Nuns, at the same place; Sisters
of Charity of the Holy Cross at Sion, Leuk, and Leu-
kerbad; Ursuline Nuns at Sion and Brieg.
Briquet, Vallesia christ. seu diac. Sedunensis hist, sacra (Sion, 1744); BoccABD, Hisl. du Valais (Geneva, 1844); Buroeneb, Die Heitigen des walliser Landes (Einsiedeln, 1857); Gremaud. Catalogue des eviques de Sion (Lausanne, 1864) ; Idem, Doc. relatifs a Vhist. du Valais (Lausanne. 1875-84); Gay, Hist, du Valais (Geneva. 1888-89); Idem, Melanges d'hist. mlaisanne (Geneva, 1891); Rameau, Le Valais hist. (Sion, 1891); BOchi, Die kath. Kirche der Schweiz (Munich, 1902); Bourbon, L'arch- evlgue s. Vultchaire (Fribourg, 1900) ; Melanges d'hist. et d'archiol. de la soc. helvetique de Saint-Maurice (1901) ; Grenat, Hist, moderne du Valais 1SS6-181B (Geneva, 19()4) ; Besson, Recherches 9ur les orig. des evichSs de Geneve, Lausanne, Sion, etc. (Paris, 1906); Status venerabilis cleri dioec, Sedunen. (Sion, 1911); Blatter ous dcT walliser Gesch. (Sion, 1899—).
Joseph Lins. Sionita. See Gabriel Sionita.
Sioux City, Diocese of (Siopolitan.), erected 15 Jan., 1902, by Leo XIII. The establishment of this diocese was provided for in the Bull appointing Most Rev. John J. Keane, D.D., to the Archbishopric of Dubuque on 24 July, 1900. This provision was made on the occasion of that appointment for the reason that the new diocese was taken entirely from the Archdiocese of Dubuque. It comprises twenty-four counties in north-western Iowa, including a territory of 14,518 square miles. Sioux City is on the extreme limit of the western boundary of Iowa, situated on the east bank of the Missouri River, about one hun- di-cd miles north of Omaha. With the exception of Des Moines, the capital, it is the largest and most en- terprising municipality in the State of Iowa, contain- ing a population of between fifty and sLxt-y thousand. It is in the midst of a large and rich agricultural coun- trj', and relies chiefly on the products of the soil, of which the staple article is corn; consequently grain- packing is the chief industry of Sioux City. The Catholic population of the diocese is almost sixty thousand. It has 138 churches, including missions, 122 priests, of whom 6 are religious (4 Friars Minor and 2 Fathers of the Sacred Heart); 53 parochial schools, with 4 hospitals; 4 academies; 2 schools of domestic science; an orphanage, a Good Shepherd home, an infant asylum, a home for the aged, and a working girls' home. There are 7327 children in the parish schools, and nearly SOOO under Catholic care. The comp<).';ition of the Catholic population of the diocese is English-speaking and German. These form the principal elements of the Church's membership here, and are almost equally divided in numbers. A characteristic feature of western Catholicism is
manifest here as in other western dioceses, that is the
ardent desire of the people for parochial schools
wherever it is possible. Out of the 10,000 children
of school age (i. e. under seventeen years) in the
diocese, three-fourths are in parochial schools. The
following orders conduct schools and charitable institu-
tions in the diocese: Sisters of Charity B.V.M., Sisters
of Christian Charity, Sisters of St. Dominic, Sisters of
St. Francis (Dubuque, Iowa), Franciscan Sisters (Clin-
ton, Iowa), Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration,
School Sisters of St. Francis, Presentation Nuns, Ser-
vants of Mary, Sisters of St. Benedict, Sisters of
Mercy, Sisters of the Good Shepherd.
Since its establishment nine years ago, the diocese is thoroughly organized and has been constantly expanding bj' the erection of churches, schools, and other institutions. The present bishop, the Right Reverend Philip J. Garrigan, D.D., first bishop of the diocese, was born in Ireland in the early forties, came to this country with his parents, and received his elementary education in the public schools of Lowell, Mass. He pursued his classical course at St. Charles's College, Ellicott City, Maryland, and courses of philosophy and thoolog>' at the Provincial Seminary of New York at Troy, where he was ordained on 11 June, 1S70. After a short term as curate of St. John's Church, Worcester, Massachusetts, he was appointed director of the Troy seminary for three years; and was for fourteen years afterwards pastor of St. Bernard's Church, Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1888 he was appointed first vice-rector of the Catholic University at Washington, D. C., which position he also held for fourteen years. He was named Bishop of Sioux City on 21 March, 1902, and consecrated at the see of his home diocese, Springfield, Massachusetts, on 25 May of the same year, by the Right Rev. T. D. Beaven, and on 18 June following took possession of his see.
Philip J. Garrigan.
Sioux Falls, Diocese of (Siotjxormensis), suf- fragan of St. Paul, comprises all that part of the State of South Dakota east of the Missouri River, an area of 34,861 square miles. The western portion of the state, forming the present Diocese of Lead, was de- tached from the Diocese of Sioux Falls, 8 August, 1902. The early historj- of religion in South Dakota (until 1879) must be sought for in the histories re- spectively of St. Paul, Dubuque, and Nebraska. The first Mass celebrated in South Dakota was in 1842, in BrowTi County, by the late Monsignor Ravoux of St. Paul on his first visit to the Sioux Indians; and the first church erected was in 1867, by the late Father Pierre Boucher, who was sent by Bishop Grace of St. Paul to Jefferson, LTnion County, to attend the CathoUcs scattered about that centre. In .August, 1879, the Vicariate ApostoUc of Dakota, whose bound- aries corresponded with the then existing civil bound- aries of the newly formed Territory of Dakota, was established, and the Right Reverend Martin Marty, Abbot of St. Meinrad's Benedictine Abbey, Indiana, nominated Bishop of Tiberias and vicar Ajiostolic of the new district. Bishop Marty was consecrated in the Church of St. Ferdinand, Ferdinand, Indiana, 1 Feb., 1880, by the Right Reverend Francis Silas Chatard, the present Bishop of Indi;mapohs. The vicariate was an immense district to govern (149,112 square miles) with scarcely any mode of travelling, except by the primitive ox or mule teams. A few miles of railroad existed from Sioux City to Yankton. The new vicar Apostolic went directly to Yankton, where lie took up his residence. He found 12 priests administering to a scattered Catholic population of le.ss than 14,000 souls and 20 churches. Many and heroic were the hardships endured by both bishop and priests. At the close of 1881 the number of priests increased to 37, the number of churches to 43
