Our Lady of Victories Parish is one of the oldest along the Gulf Coast. Its date of establishment [according to the diocese] reads 1855, recognizing the fact that there was much activity in the area prior to that date. Mobile and New Orleans of course were areas of Catholic population prior to any sizable populations in these areas of the Gulf Coast. In these early days~ Catholic missionaries, often Jesuits, traversed these areas doing some missionary work as they traveled between these two cities. Consequently, many early records of baptism, marriage, and death were recorded in either Mobile or New Orleans. The first diocese in Mississippi was established in Natchez (then being a busy river town) in 1837 with Rev. John Joseph Chanche as its first bishop. A number of years after that, some coastal parishes were established: Nativity in Biloxi in 1843, Our Lady of the Gulf; Bay St. Louis in 1847, St. Paul; Pass Christian in 1847, and Our Lady of Victories, Pascagoula in 1855. These parishes and their pastors would be responsible for surrounding areas that did not have a church of their own and would visit those areas as time permitted.