Home Encyclopedia Summa Fathers ... S > Syracuse A B C D ... CICDC - Home of the Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan Syracuse (Syracusensis) The Diocese of Syracuse, in the State of New York, comprises the counties of Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego, and contains an area of 5626 square miles, a little more than one-ninth of the entire state. Out of a population of 609,041, about 161,000, or a little more than one-fourth, are Catholics. Missions Among the Indians The Oneidas and the Onondagas occupied lands near the shores of the lakes which bear their names. The first chosen president of the Iroquois was the venerable Ato-tao-ho, a famous Onondaga chief. The Onondagas were the central nation of the League, and not far from the present episcopal city, on Indian Hill, between the ravines formed by the west and middle branches of Limestone Creek in the town of Pompey, about two miles south of Manlius, was the village of Onondaga, the seat of government for the League of the Five Nations. It is probable that some of the Franciscan Fathers of the Recollect reform, whom Champlain obtained from France in 1614 to minister to the French settlers and convert the natives, visited this territory and offered up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the shores of Lakes Onondaga or Oneida, and perhaps what is now Oswego as early as 1615. Father Le Moyne, S.J., however, must be considered the real founder of the Church in the Diocese of Syracuse. Fathers Joseph Chaumonot and Claude Dablon were selected to begin the work of evangelization. They said Mass on the chosen site Sunday, 14 November 1654. A little bark chapel was soon constructed with the assistance of the Indians. | |
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