Originally the area of the Free State was part of the Vicariate of Natal, which was established by the Holy See on 5 October 1850, extending from the Kei River in the South and to Quillemane in the North and confided to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Bishop JE Allard OMI, was appointed the first Vicar Apostolic. Consecrated in Marseilles, France, on 13 July 1851.
The Zambesi Mission to the North of the Limpopo was confided to the Society of Jesus in 1879. Then in 1886 the remaining territory under Bishop C Jolivet OMI, was subdivided into the Prefecture of the Transvaal and the Vicariate of the Orange Free State, comprising the Free State, Basutoland and the Diamond Fields; on the north and on the west, the Vaal River; and on the east the Drakensberg Mountains. The new Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Anthony Gaughren OMI, (consecrated in Tower Hill, London on 10 August 1886) would reside at Bloemfontein. Bishop Q Devereux of Grahamstown had sent Father R Hoenderwangers, O.Praem. to visit Bloemfontein in 1850 and he took up residence there in 1852, remaining as the pioneer priest of the Free State until his return to Belgium in 1869, when his place was taken by Father Le Bihan OMI, and later by Father V Bompart OMI.
When Bishop A Gaughren arrived in November 1886 the train terminus from Cape Town was Kimberley and so he took up residence there, travelling regularly by post cart to Bloemfontein and on to Basutoland. Kimberley remained the Episcopal Residence for his successors, Bishop Matthew Gaughren OMI (1902-1914) and Bishop HJ Meysing OMI (1924-1951). During the interregnum (1914-1924) Bishop C Cox OMI, of the Transvaal was Administrator Apostolic.
On 11 January 1951, by Papal Bull, Pope Pius XII established the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy in the Union of South Africa, and set up the Ecclesiastical Province of Bloemfontein.
The Archdiocese includes the civil districts: Bloemfontein, Boshof, Botshabelo, Brandfort, Bultfontein, Dealsville, Dewetsdorp, Edenburg, Excelsior, Fauresmith, Hertzogville, Hobhouse, Jacobsdal, Koffiefontein, Luckhoff, Marseilles, Petrusburg, Philippolis, Reddersburg, Smithfield, Thaba Nchu, Trompsburg, Tweespruit, Verkeerdevlei, Wepener, Zastron, and portion of Ladybrand, Hoopstad and Winburg.
