Christianism was introduced in present-day Algeria as early as the second century.
After the Arab conquest in the 7th century, it gradually faded away and by the 11th
century it had completely disappeared.
After the French conquest in 1830 a new community - consisting mainly of European
migrants and only a handfull of indigenous converts - emerged and in 1838 a Diocese
of Alger (suffragan of Aix en Provence) was erected.
In 1866 Alger became a separate Archdiocese with two suffragans (Constantine and
Oran), covering the French departments in northern Algeria.
Archbishops
1867 - 1892 Cardinal (1882) Charles Martial
Allemand Lavigerie (1) 1825 - 1892
1892 - 1897 Prosper Auguste Duserre 1833 - 1897
1898 - 1907 Frédéric Henry Oury 1842 - 1921
1907 - 1909 vacant
1909 - 1917 Barthélemy Clément Combes, Apostolic
Administrator since 1907 1839 - 1922
1917 - 1953 Auguste Ferdinand Leynard 1865 - 1953
(1) Cardinal Lavigerie also was Apostolic Delegate to the Sahara and the
Sudan (since 1868) and to Central Africa (since 1878.) As such he was
entrusted with the spreading of the faith in the - mainly Islamic -
African territories where no Catholic hierarchy existed yet.
To achieve this he founded, in 1868, the Missionary Society of Our
Lady of Africa - better known as the White Fathers - who, in the
course of the following years introduced Catholicism in Burundi and
Ruanda (1900), the French Sudan/Mali (1892), Upper Volta/Burkina Faso
(1899), etc.
Cardinal Lavigerie headed the Society until his death in 1892.
Since 1877 he was represented by Vicars General :
1877 - 1880 ... Deguerry
1880 - 1883 P. Charbonnier
1883 - 1886 ... Bridoux
1886 - 1889 ... Deguerry (2x)
1889 - 1892 Léon Antoine Augustin Siméon Livinhac 1846 - 1922
After Lavigerie's death Superiors General were elected :
1892 - 1921 Léon Antoine Augustin Siméon Livinhac,
Titular Bishop of Pacanda in Lycia s.a.
1922 - 1936 Paul Voillard (acting until 1925)
1936 - 1947 Joseph Marie Birraux, Titular Bishop
of Ombi in Thebiade II 1883 - 1947
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GHARDAIA IN THE SAHARA*
In 1868 the western Sahara, at that moment not yet under French rule, was included
in the Apostolic Prefecture - since 1891 Apostolic Vicariate - of the Sahara and
the Sudan encompasing the whole of interior West Africa.
In 1901 the Sahara was detached and organized as a separate Apostolic Prefecture of
Ghardaia, which was renamed Ghardaia in the Sahara in 1921.
Like in nortern Algeria, mission work had very little success among the indigenous
peoples.
Prefects Apostolic
1901 - 1910 Charles Guérin 1878 - 1910
1911 - 1916 Henry Bardou
1916 - 1919 Louis David*
1919 - 1941 Gustave Jean-Marie Nouet 1878 -
1941 - 1948 Georges Louis Mercier, continued as
Vicar Apostolic until 1955 and as
Bishop until 1968 1902 -
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