The mission of the White Fathers evangelizes the five northern districts which lie west of Lake Nyassa.
The Vicariate Apostolic of Shire is composed of the eight other districts lying south of Lake Nyassa.
The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith confided evangelization of this territory to the missionaries of the Company of Mary, founded by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort.
On 14 April 1908, Pope Pius X erected the prefecture into a vicariate Apostolic with Mgr Auguste Prezeau as the first vicar.
Prezeau was consecrated at Zanzibar on October 4, 1908, by Mgr Allgeyer of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost, and died in France on 4 December 1910.