Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg
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Diocese of Saint Petersburg Dioecesis Sancti Petri in Florida |
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| Location | |
| Country | United States of America |
| Territory |
State of Florida Tampa Bay (Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus) |
| Ecclesiastical province | Archdiocese of Miami |
| Population - Catholics |
398,702 (15%) |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | March 2, 1968 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of Saint Jude the Apostle |
| Patron saint | Saint Jude |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Bishop | Gregory Parkes |
| Metropolitan Archbishop |
Thomas Wenski Archbishop of Miami |
| Map | |
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| Website | |
| dioceseofstpete.org | |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Petersburg (Latin: Dioecesis Sancti Petri in Florida) is a Roman Catholic diocese in Florida. It was founded on March 2, 1968.
The Diocese of St. Petersburg was established on June 17, 1968, from the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami. It is a suffragan see for the Province of Miami. It comprises 3,177 square miles (8,230 km2), and it includes the five counties of Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus on the west central coast of the State of Florida, along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The total population is 2,660,220, 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. (sometimes written "Suárez") lead a group of thirteen Franciscan and diocesan priests in the Narváez expedition which came ashore in April 1528.
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