Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Petersburg

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Petersburg is a Roman Catholic diocese comprising 3,177 square miles , encompassing Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus counties on the west central coast of the State of Florida, along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The total population is 3,030,936, with a Catholic population of 398,702. The principal cities are Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater.

The Church's presence in this part of Florida stretches back nearly five hundred years to the arrival of the Spanish explorers and the missionaries who accompanied them. After Juan Ponce de León's initial discovery of Florida and Tampa Bay in 1513, explorers over the next several decades such as Panfilo de Narvaez in 1528 and Hernando de Soto in 1539 came here, bringing with them priests and religious in the hope of native conversions. Fr. Juan Xuárez O.F.M. lead a group of thirteen Franciscan and diocesan priests in the Narváez expedition which came ashore in April 1528.

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