Organisation Léon des Avanchers, a member of the
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin from Savoy, arrived in
Victoria, Seychelles, on 1 March 1851. During his three-week visit he baptised hundreds of people. The
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples placed the islands under the administration of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Port-Louis on 26 November 1852.
Pope Pius IX established an
apostolic prefecture for the islands on 26 November 1852. It was raised to an
apostolic vicariate on 5 April 1880, and then as the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Port Victoria on 21 July 1892. Two missionaries, Jérémie de Paglietta and Théophile, arrived on 20 September 1853. Paglietta was the first apostolic prefect. The Catholic Church acquired its first property in the Seychelles in 1879.
L’Action Catholique was launched by Bishop Ernest Joye in 1935, the it was renamed to
L’Écho des Îles in 1957. An act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom incorporated the Catholic Church in the Seychelles in 1938. On 12 June 2000, the
National Assembly voted to change the official name of the church from "The Mission of Seychelles" to "The Catholic Church in Seychelles".
People Priests from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in Savoy served the area from the 1860s to 1922, when they were replaced by members of the order from Switzerland. The first three nuns, member of the
Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, arrived on 15 January 1861. The
Marist Brothers arrive on 4 January 1884. Bishop Marc Hudrisier performed the Sacerdotal ordination in Seychelles on 19 September 1895, with the ordination of Jerome Pattoret. James Chang-Tave became the first priest from the Seychelles when he was ordained on 1 January 1950.
Félix Paul became the first bishop from the Seycehlles with his appointment on 25 July 1975. Bishop
Marcel Olivier Maradan participated in the
Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965.
Pope John Paul II visited the islands on 1 December 1986. The
Bible was translated into
Seychellois Creole in 2015. ==Education==