Diocese of Wilmington

The Diocese of Wilmington was established on March 3, 1868, covering the entire state of Delaware and the nine counties of Maryland's Eastern Shore. Its cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Wilmington, dates to 1816. The diocese's roots reach back to 1704 through St. Francis Xavier Shrine in Cecil County, Maryland — known as "Old Bohemia" — where Jesuit missionaries ran a clandestine Catholic mission during a period of religious suppression, making it the oldest permanent Catholic presence on the Delmarva Peninsula. Today the diocese serves approximately 78 parishes across this region.