The most extensive Vicariate in the world

The map of the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia, published in the precious booklet entitled The Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia, edited by the Capuchin friar Egidio Picucci

The Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia, with its three million square kilometers, is the most extensive in the world. It is dependent upon the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide) and includes all the Arabian Peninsula excluding Kuwait. Under its jurisdiction therefore are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and the Yemen. Established in 1888 with its See in Aden in the Yemen, the Vicariate was entrusted to the Capuchin friars. In 1973 the Marxist regime of the then South Yemen expelled all the missionaries from Aden and thus the Holy See transferred the See of the Vicariate to Abu Dhabi, one of the seven emirates that form the United Arab Emirates (the others are: Ajman, Ash-Shariqah, Dubai, Fujayrah, Ras al Khaimah, Umm al Qaiwain).