Diócesis de Venecia en Florida

La primera presencia católica en el suroeste de Florida fue la expedición del español Juan Ponce de León , quien llegó a la costa del Golfo en 1513. La hostilidad del pueblo indígena Calusa le impidió desembarcar. De León regresó a la región con una expedición colonizadora en 1521, desembarcando cerca de Charlotte Harbor o en la desembocadura del río Caloosahatchee . Su expedición incluía 200 hombres, entre ellos varios sacerdotes. ^{[ 2 ]}

En 1539, el explorador español Hernando de Soto desembarcó cerca de la actual Bahía de Port Charlotte o Bahía de San Carlos . Bautizó el nuevo territorio como "La Bahía del Espíritu Santo", en honor al Espíritu Santo . ^{[ 3 ]} De Soto dirigió una expedición de 10 barcos y 620 hombres. Su compañía incluía 12 sacerdotes. ^{[ 3 ]} Posteriormente, la expedición de De Soto se dirigió a la zona de la Bahía de Tampa y luego al centro de Florida.

El misionero español Luis de Cáncer llegó por mar con varios sacerdotes dominicos a la actual Bradenton en 1549. Al encontrarse con un grupo aparentemente pacífico de miembros del clan Tocobaga , decidieron viajar a la bahía de Tampa. Varios sacerdotes viajaron por tierra con los Tocobaga, mientras que Cáncer y el resto del grupo navegaron a la bahía de Tampa para reunirse con ellos. ^{[ 4 ]} Al llegar a la bahía de Tampa, Cáncer se enteró, aún a bordo de su barco, de que los Tocobaga habían asesinado a los sacerdotes del grupo que había viajado por tierra. Ignorando el consejo de abandonar la zona, Cáncer desembarcó, donde también fue asesinado. ^{[ 4 ]} Los españoles intentaron establecer otra misión en la zona de la bahía de Tampa en 1567, pero pronto fue abandonada. ^{[ 5 ]}

In 1565, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the founder of Saint Augustine and Governor of Spanish Florida, brokered a peace agreement with the Calusa peoples. This agreement allowed him to build the San Antón de Carlos mission at Mound Key in what is now Lee County. Menéndez de Avilés also built a fort at Mound Key and established a garrison. San Antón de Carlos was the first Jesuit mission in the Western Hemisphere and the first Catholic presence within the Venice area. Juan Rogel and Francisco de Villareal spent the winter at the mission studying the Calusa language, then started evangelizing among the Calusa in southern Florida. The Jesuits built a chapel at the mission in 1567. Conflicts with the Calusa soon increased, prompting Menéndez de Avilés to abandon San Antón de Carlos in 1569.^[6]

After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Spain ceded all of Florida to Great Britain for the return of Cuba. Given the antagonism of Protestant Great Britain to Catholicism, the majority of the Catholic population in Florida fled to Cuba.^[7] After the American Revolution, Spain regained control of Florida in 1784.^[8] In 1793, the Vatican changed the jurisdiction for Florida Catholics from Havana to the Apostolic Vicariate of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, based in New Orleans.^[9] In the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, Spain ceded all of Florida to the United States, which established the Florida Territory in 1821.^[10]

In 1825, the Vicariate of Alabama and Florida was erected; it included all of Florida, based in Mobile, Alabama.^[11]In 1858, Pius IX moved Florida into a new Apostolic Vicariate of Florida,^[12] which in 1870 was converted into the Diocese of St. Augustine, which included the Venice area.^[13]

After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, Catholic missionaries from dioceses in Savannah, St. Augustine, and Tampa, began visiting the Venice area.^[14] In 1889, the Venice area was placed under the jurisdiction of the Jesuit Order in Tampa, with Bishop John Moore requesting that the Jesuits cover Hillsborough County southward to Key West.^[14][15] Jesuit priests made regular visits to Bradenton, Fort Myers, Arcadia, and adjacent missions. The first missions established by Jesuits in southwest Florida were:^[14]

• Sacred Heart in Bradenton (1868)^[16]
• Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (later St. Francis Xavier) in Fort Myers (1878)^[17]
• St. Paul in Arcadia (1882)^[18]
• Sacred Heart in Punta Gorda (1888)^[19]
• St. Martha in Sarasota (1889)^[20]

In the early years of the 20th Century, the following parishes were established in the Venice area:

• St. Michael in Wauchula (1915)^[21]
• St. Joseph in Bradenton (1915)^[22]
• St. Catherine in Sebring (1918)^[23]

Epiphany Parish, the first in Venice, was established as a mission in 1935.^[24]

After the end of World War II in 1945, Bishop Joseph P. Hurley of St. Augustine started a program of purchasing property throughout Florida to develop new parishes for the increasing Catholic population. He also recruited priests from the northern states and Ireland. St. Ann's, the first parish in Naples, opened in 1950.^[25]