August 14, 1559 is the date that signals the beginning of the Catholic presence in Spanish Florida. A Spanish expedition, consisting of eleven ships under the command of Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano, landed that day on the shores of the Bay of Ochuse (Pensacola Bay), intending to establish a permanent settlement. Aboard the ships were 500 soldiers, 1000 settlers (among them, artisans, farmers, women, and children), five Dominican Friars and a lay Brother, and 240 horses.

Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano claimed possession of the territory for Spain and, in honor of the next day's Feast of the Assumption and of Philip II, King of Spain, named the settlement Mission Santa Maria Filipina.

One month later, a fierce hurricane ravaged the settlement, destroying most of the ships, supplies, and provisions. In spite of hardships, sickness, and lack of food, the group continued to labor for another year and a half to create a permanent settlement. Finally, after enduring further hurricanes, and after most of the members of the expedition had either moved inland, died, or gone back to Mexico, the settlement was abandoned. Discouraged by this failure, and by five previous attempts at settlement in the area, the Crown turned its attention to Florida's East Coast. There, at St. Augustine in 1565, Spain established the first permanent settlement in what is now the United States.

It would be another 130 years, in 1693, before Spain would again attempt a settlement around the magnificent harbor of Pensacola Bay. In that year, two vessels under the command of Admiral Andres de Pez were sent from Vera Cruz, Mexico, to map and explore the bay. Aboard was Father Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, a geographer and well-known professor of mathematics at the University of Mexico. Father Sigüenza surveyed the shore for a suitable site for settlement, gave a detailed report of the area and Indian life, and recommended immediate settlement.

Though a permanent settlement was not established until five years later, Andres de Pez had immediately proposed that St. Augustine be partially abandoned in favor of the new site. But, while St. Augustine remained, Pensacola would one day rival that settlement as headquarters of the province.

Beginning with the War of Spanish Succession in 1702, violence continually erupted throughout the next eighty-eight years as Pensacola was variously governed under the territorial flags of Spain from 1693-1719, France from 1719-1722, Spain from 1722-1763, and England from 1763-1781.

England agreed, in the first Treaty of Paris in 1763, to trade the captured port of Havana back to Spain in exchange for Florida. That agreement also contained the pledge that Roman Catholic subjects in Florida would be allowed to practice their religion "so far as the laws of Great Britain permit." Word soon came, though, that Spain's King Charles III was offering homes in Mexico or Cuba to all his former subjects in Pensacola and St. Augustine who wished to leave, creating a mass exodus of Catholics from both towns.

On May 8, 1781, after a sixty-one day siege, Spain recaptured West Florida from the British in the Battle of Pensacola. The troops were led by General Bernardo de Gálvez with an armada of sixty-four ships. The day after this historic battle, Father Cyril de Barcelona, a Capuchin missionary who was chaplain to the troops, blessed an old two story wooden warehouse on the waterfront for a church (near the present day intersection of Jefferson and Zaragossa streets), permanently establishing the parish of St. Michael the Archangel in downtown Pensacola. Once again, the Catholic Church had a foothold in Pensacola.

When Barcelona returned to Pensacola in 1791, this time as Auxiliary Bishop of the joint province of Louisiana-West Florida, he found a small frontier settlement in depressing poverty with a only a few elegant houses, one tavern, and one trading company. He counted 572 souls, 292 of whom were white. Of the 245 Catholics, 131 were white. The year before Bishop Cyril's arrival, only seven Catholics had received Holy Communion during the Easter season. French speaking citizens had not confessed their sins for as long as five years as the sole priest, Father Estaban Valorio, did not speak French. Bishop Cyril saw to it personally that more than 70 parishioners received Holy Communion during his visit. But, except for a failure to learn French, Bishop Cyril saw little need to criticize Father Valario, who was laboring with tremendous zeal under difficult circumstances.

With the transfer of the territory from Spain to the United States in 1821, many Spanish subjects chose to leave while, at the same time, Americans began to arrive in increasing numbers. Catholics in all of West Florida in the 1830's numbered only about 2,000. During this period, a Mexican priest, Canon Matías Monteagudo, ministered to the parishioners. Father Andrew Poujade, newly ordained from France, briefly assisted in 1831. At the beginning of that year, the original warehouse/church on Zaragossa Street finally collapsed and the congregation, though hindered by poverty, resolved to build a new church. Bishop Portier gave what assistance he could from funds distributed by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith at Lyons. But, just as the new structure neared completion, it was completely destroyed by a hurricane!

A new start was made, and new and serious debts incurred. At last, by 1833, the building was successfully completed at the corner of Jefferson and Church streets and Pensacola Catholics had a suitable place of worship for the first time in their history. In that same year, Father John Symphorian Guinand, another newly ordained priest from France, was assigned to St. Michael as permanent pastor.

The War Between the States, which began in 1861, brought more hardship to the area. Father Patrick A. Coyle of St. Michael's was commissioned a Confederate chaplain to care for the Southern troops, and Bishop Quinlin of Mobile sent six Daughters of Charity to staff the military hospital. In May 1862, the Confederate troops abandoned Pensacola. Ninety percent of the population left for the interior, while the sisters returned to Mobile. An empty St. Michael Church was later destroyed in a fire, unconnected to the war.

After the War, Bishop Quinlin immediately went about securing funds to rebuild St. Michael, and a new church was dedicated on December 22, 1867.

Although Pensacola possessed one of the finest deep-water harbors in the South, it lacked the one feature necessary for commerce: a navigable river to the interior. With the completion of a rail connection north to Montgomery in 1870, followed by an east-west rail line in 1883, Pensacola became a true boomtown! Ships from all over the world came into Pensacola Bay to load lumber from the logging operations of the great Southern Pine forests of Alabama and Northwest Florida. In addition, millions of tons of Pensacola Red Snapper were being shipped north in refrigerated rail cars. In 1882, during this period of burgeoning prosperity, St. Michael Church was again destroyed by fire. Construction of the current church building on Palafox and Chase streets began the following year and it was formally dedicated on June 6, 1886 by Bishop Jeremiah O'Sullivan of Mobile.

As the population of Pensacola soared, so did the need for additional churches and parishes. From this one church have sprung over 25 Parish churches in the Pensacola-Gulf Breeze area of Northwest Florida, rightfully earning St. Michael the Archangel the title of Mater Ecclesia.

Today, St. Michael remains as the "downtown parish" encompassing an area roughly bounded by Pensacola Bay to the South, Alcaniz Street to the East, 'A' Street to the West, and Fairfield Drive (old Pottery Plant Road) to the North.

Additionally, St. Michael serves the business community with a daily noontime Mass, as well providing a Catholic presence and location for liturgical activities involving the civic community.