Welcome to the Diocese of Amarillo located in the Texas Panhandle, the High Plains! We are composed of 26 counties comprising approximately 25,800 square miles.

The first evidence of a Catholic presence in our area was in 1541 when the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was searching for Cibola, the seven cities of gold. On the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Father Juan de Padilla, a Spanish Franciscan Friar accompanying the Coronado Expedition offered Mass in the environs of Palo Duro Canyon located near the present city of Amarillo.

Father Juan de Padilla, OFM, is the first Martyr on U.S. soil. He died while evangelizing the native people in present day Kansas on November 30, 1544.

Originally we were part of the Diocese of Guadalajara (Mexico), then Linares (Mexico), then New Orleans (LA), then the Texas Dioceses of Galveston, and Dallas before being established as our own diocese August 26, 1926. By U.S. Catholic Diocesan standards we are still a missionary diocese...READ MORE >>