Subutai—Tolui having died in 1232 during the…

The Catholic Church has had a presence in New Orleans since the founding of the city by the French in 1718.

New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana west of the Mississippi had been surrendered to the Spanish in 1763.

From then until 1783 the two Floridas had been under British control, but as part of the Peace of Paris (1783) the two Florida colonies had been regained from Great Britain.

Thus, the pioneer parishes of New Orleans and Louisiana are incorporated into the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas when it is established by Pope Pius VI on April 25, 1793.

The diocese originally encompasses the entire Louisiana Purchase, from the Gulf of Mexico to British North America, as well as the Florida peninsula and the Gulf Coast.

The date of its establishment makes it the second-oldest diocese in the present-day United States: the Diocese of Baltimore had been established on November 6, 1789.

At the time of its establishment, the territory of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas is part of the Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana, based in Havana, Cuba.