History of St. Augustine Parish

Our parish is under the patronage of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (Africa), philosopher and Father of the Latin Church.

St. Augustine's Community was founded in Phoenix in 1970 when the Maryvale area was showing signs of rapid growth. The first Mass was celebrated at Madonna Hall, Bourgade High School, on July 12, 1970. The community gathered for Eucharist at Desert Sands Junior High School until the permanent multi-purpose church building, where we now assemble was completed in September, 1972.

As the community and its needs increased, the religious education facility was added to the church two complexes: one in 1978 and other in 2001, followed by the office complex in 1985 and the St. Vincent de Paul Society complex in 2008. In addition, last year the church building and sacristy were remodeled.

Priests who accompanied us on this journey: Fr. William Reid, Fr. Emery, Fr. Robert Voss (1970); Fr. Dominic Candappa (1971); Fr. Ed Blee, Fr. Javier Reyes (1974); Fr. Terry Lynch, Fr. Bob Lexa (1976); Fr. Tom Owens, Fr. Neil Draves Arpia, Fr. Jorge Corva; Fr. Phil Evanstock (1978); Fr. John Volvo, Fr. Antonio Sotelo, Msgr. Ed Villarte, Fr. Prudencio Rodriguez (1981); Fr. Dan Moschel, Fr. John Brummer, Fr. Edgar Schaefer, Fr. Henry Hodges (1983); Fr. Joe Ladensack; Fr. Vernon Schaefer (1984); Fr. Dan Conditt (1986); Fr. Fausto Peñafiel (1992); Fr. Lean Dominic, Fr. John Ebbesmeyer (1993); Fr. David Sanfillippo (1997); Fr. Nicholas Floridi (2001); Fr. Alonso Saenz (2002); Fr. Stephane Dupre, Fr. Kenneth Fryar (2005); Fr. Carlos A. Gomez (2006); Fr. Matthew W. Krempel, Fr. Braulio Valencia (2007); Fr. José G. Ballesteros (2008); and Fr. Sadei M. Toma (2011), Fr. Joevensie Balang (2013), Fr. Francisco Lopez, MDM (2017), Fr. Octavio Delgado (2018), Fr. Joseph Peethuruthel Matthew (2020).

St. Augustine Catholic Church has a wonderful reputation of being friendly, giving, loving, and spiritually supportive to all who enter. It is our fervent hope that our community will always continue in Christ's service to one another in that same fashion. Our parish motto says it all: "All people joined together in Christ, for prayer and service."

Mission Statement of our Parish

Create a community where we can live and share our Catholic Faith under the Roman Rite through prayer, proclamation of the Word of God, Sacramental Celebrations, Human and Spiritual Formation of the faithful; creating a strong Fraternity to transform our society and to foster the Salvation of souls.

Parish Vision

We are a sanctified and sanctifier Community through the integration of all parish groups, a conscious and active participation of liturgical celebrations, spiritual counseling, and continuous formation and training by means of special workshops. In this way we will keep Jesus Christ's message alive and vibrant reaching our community with His grace and His gospel.