The Diocese of Venice in Florida ( la, Dioecesis Venetiae in Florida) is a

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

ecclesiastical territory or

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. It was founded on June 16, 1984 with the purpose of serving the southwestern portion of the state. The Diocese of Venice includes ten counties:

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry,

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...

, Lee,

Manatee Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus ''Trichechus'') are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living speci ...

, and

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

. As Bishop John Joseph Nevins resigned for reasons of age on January 19, 2007, he was succeeded as ordinary by Bishop Frank Joseph Dewane. The Diocese of Venice in Florida is a suffragan diocese in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of seve ...

of the metropolitan

Archdiocese of Miami The Archdiocese of Miami ( la, Archidioecesis Miamiensis, es, Arquidiócesis de Miami, ht, Achidyosèz Miami) is a particular church of the Catholic Church in the United States of America. Its ecclesiastical territory consists of Broward, Miami ...

History

Beginnings of Catholicism in Southern Florida

1510s: Juan Ponce de Leon and Calusa resistance to missions

The first Spanish explorers came ashore in what is now the diocese in the 16th century. Their arrival brought the first Catholic missionaries, whose purpose was to set up permanent missions in the name of Spain and the Catholic Church. Conquistador Juan Ponce de León was the first European to arrive in Florida, in 1513. He explored its west coast between 1513 and 1521. Ponce de Leon encountered the resident Calusa tribe, who first welcomed the Spanish, but later objected because the explorers had desecrated their sacred places, and fought the invaders. The Calusa objected to the construction of missions, and frequently attacked them. When Ponce de Leon was injured in an attack the expedition and mission on the West Coast was abandoned.

1539-1542: Hernando de Soto's expedition

Seven years later Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto brought priests to Florida in an attempt to evangelize the native tribes during an exploration of the coast from 1539-1542. DeSoto led an expedition of 10 ships and 620 men, which included 12 priests. They landed near what is now

Bradenton Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries A settlement established by Maroons or escaped sl ...

on May 25, 1539. Mass was celebrated almost every day by the expedition priests. Later, when DeSoto landed at Shaw's Point near the mouth of Tampa Bay, the men named it "La Bahia de Espiritu Santo," in honor of the Holy Spirit. The sheer number of DeSoto's forces caused the Calusa to abandon their settlements along the harbor entrance. (A memorial to the Eucharist and a Memorial Cross were built and dedicated in the area near DeSoto's landings by Bishop John J. Nevins in 1994 at

De Soto National Memorial De Soto National Memorial, in Manatee County west of Bradenton, Florida, commemorates the 1539 landing of Hernando de Soto and the first extensive organized exploration by Europeans of what is now the southern United States. The memorial include ...

in Bradenton.)

1560s: Jesuit mission at Mound Key

Other efforts to bring missionaries to Florida were unsuccessful until Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, founder of

Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

and Governor of Spanish Florida, sought peace with the Calusa and founded a military outpost there in February 1566. Pedro Menendez sought assistance from the

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, who agreed to send a small contingent to Florida. Before leaving the San Carlos Bay area, Menéndez established a Jesuit mission at Mound Key near the mouth of the

Estero River Estero is a village in Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,939. During the 2010 census, Estero was an unincorporated community, or census-designated place, the population at that time was 22,612. Est ...

in what is now Lee County, and left a garrison of soldiers to guard it. Called San Antonio de Carlos, it was the first such mission in the Spanish

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

and the first Catholic presence within the territory of the present Diocese of Venice in Florida. Father

Juan Rogel The Diocese of Venice in Florida ( la, Dioecesis Venetiae in Florida) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Florida. It was founded on June 16, 1984 with the purpose of serving the southwestern portion ...

and Brother Francisco de Villareal spent the winter studying the Calusa language, and proceeded to work among the tribe in southern Florida. The establishment there of a fort and settlement at Mound Key was the first such effort to colonize the area. A chapel was built at the Jesuit mission in 1567. Due to frequent conflict with the Calusa, the Mound Key area was abandoned by the Spanish in 1569.

Post Civil War

After the end of the

US Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

in 1865, missionaries from Savannah, St. Augustine, and Tampa, began visiting the areas south of

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater ...

that later became the Diocese of Venice. In 1889 the care of the area within the Diocese fell under the jurisdiction of the Jesuit Fathers from Tampa, who made regular visits to Bradenton, Fort Myers, Arcadia, and adjacent missions. The first missions and Catholic communities within the current Diocese of Venice in Florida were located at Sacred Heart in Bradenton (1868), Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (later St. Francis Xavier) in Fort Myers (1878), St. Paul in Arcadia (1882), Sacred Heart in Punta Gorda (1888), St. Martha in Sarasota (1889), St. Michael in Wauchula (1915), St. Joseph in Bradenton (1915), and St. Catherine in Sebring (1918).

Erection of the Diocese

Diocese of Venice in Florida Pastoral Center

The Diocese of Venice in Florida was erected by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in 1984 from parts of the

, the

Diocese of Orlando The Diocese of Orlando ( la, Dioecesis Orlandensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Florida. It encompasses about spanning Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Marion, Lake, Volusia, Brevard, Polk, and S ...

, and the Diocese of St. Petersburg; Bishop John J. Nevins was the founding Bishop.

Bishops

Bishops of Venice

# John Joseph Nevins (1984-2007) # Frank Joseph Dewane (2007–present, coadjutor bishop 2006-2007)

Educational institutions

High schools

Bishop Verot High School Bishop Verot High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Fort Myers, Florida. It is located in the Diocese of Venice, Florida. History Bishop Verot Catholic High School was established in 1962 as Fort Myers Central Catholic High Scho ...

, Fort Myers * Cardinal Mooney High School, Sarasota * St. John Neumann High School, Naples * Rhodora J. Donahue Academy, Ave Maria

Elementary schools

* St. Charles Borromeo School, Port Charlotte * St. Ann School, Naples * St. Elizabeth Seton School, Naples * St. Catherine Catholic School, Sebring * St. Andrew School, Cape Coral * St. Francis Xavier School, Fort Myers * St. Joseph School, Bradenton * Epiphany Cathedral School, Venice * Incarnation School, Sarasota * St. Martha School, Sarasota * Rhodora J. Donahue Academy, Ave Maria

Special needs schools

* St. Mary Academy at Bishop Nevins Academy, Sarasota

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Venice Official Site

Detailed parish information
{{authority control Christian organizations established in 1984

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

1984 establishments in Florida