Our Proud History
Before Calistoga.
Before St. Helena or Rutherford.
Before the first commercial winery in Napa Valley…there was the founding of St. John the Baptist Catholic Parish.
The rich vine of the Catholic faith in our beautiful valley sprung from many branches gathered in Christ: Italians, Germans, Spaniards, French, Portuguese, Mexicans, and other nationalities. Farmers, laborers, tanners, and  merchants--they came with hope. They came with shovels and ploughs. They came to build a future.
The young community desired a faith home where their many cultures could worship. In 1858 they built a small red brick church in Napa on the corner of Main and Caymus Streets, dedicated a year later by Bishop Joseph Alemany, who traveled by horse from  San Francisco to consecrate the new parish of St. John the Baptist.
The church community thrived and quickly became a unique place where all the social strands of the Napa Valley intertwined. As the decades passed, the parish flourished. In order to meet the growing needs of its time, a larger neo-gothic church was built in 1881. St. John the Baptist Catholic School, Napa Valley’s first Catholic School, opened its doors in 1912. With continued growth, a larger Vatican II era church was built in 1967. 
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