Once a Dream - Now a Reality

Early in 1977, St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Lakeland gave birth to a new mission that later became Saint Anthony parish. 

Under the direction of Father Patrick Sheedy, committees were formed to survey, investigate, finance and implement the new mission. Parishioners gathered each Sunday morning for Mass in the cafeteria of Padgett Elementary School. Organizations were formed with Richard Eastling (one of many founding parishioners who continues to actively serve the parish) as president of the mission's parish council and Marjorie Johnson as Director of Religious Education. 

A building drive began in 1978 and a church and parish center were built on 15 acres of land. On November 23, 1980, Bishop Thomas Grady dedicated the church and named it Saint Anthony.  On July 1982, Father Peter Quinn was named First Pastor and Saint Anthony became a canonically established parish. On October 10, 1982, Bishop Grady presided at the installation of Fr. Quinn as pastor.

At that time the parish served 220 families, electing Brice La Londe as president of Saint Anthony parish council. The parish office began in a classroom where it was located for more than two years and Sharon Severs was chosen as parish secretary with volunteers to assist her. In January 1984, a much needed rectory and parish office complex was built. In 1990, 20 acres of land were bought for a future mission. Cary Gomez, Mary Alice Pierce, Mary Stollsteimer and many faithful volunteers staffed the office at Saint Anthony.

Under the direction of Rosemary Yanick, D.R.E., who joined the staff in 1985, the religious education program educated over 300 children which spans from 3-year olds to adults. With Cathy Lausell as youth minister, the youth group grew stronger and expanded to young adults.
As growth of the parish moved ahead, Saint Anthony grew to 1,000 families and once again was approaching the crossroads of expansion. A pre-school was established under the direction of Joann List.  With the tremendous growth of our C.C.D. program and future plans for a Catholic school, it was imperative to venture into a building program to realize the plans for an education and media center.

In 1993 our school was established with a Pre-K program and Kindergarten. A teacher was hired to act as principal and in the following years the school grew, adding a class each year and constructing two new buildings on our campus—the classroom block, and the media center.  Our school has grown steadily in the last 20+ years, and now not only occupies these two buildings, but also a bespoke Kindergarten unit and all the side rooms of our Faith Development Center, which currently houses our VPK (Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten) Classrooms.  Our school provides a top-class education to over 230 students each year under the expert stewardship of our current Principal, Mrs. Patricia Becker.

In the last 10 years we have also added a thriving Catholic Christian Gift Shop and Thrift Shop to our parish which provide additional sources of income to support our school and other ministries.  These are also valuable evangelization and outreach outlets and provide opportunities for many parishioners to share the love of God with others.

Vacant land next to the Parish Campus was purchased in 2008.  This purchase protects our parish from being locked in by commercial or residential development, and gives us options for future growth.

In the last 35 years Saint Anthony has been guided by several priests: Fr. Pat Sheedy 1980-1982 as founding Pastor from St. Joseph’s; Fr. Peter Quinn was installed as first Pastor serving from 1982-1996. Fr. Vianney Cunningham, a Franciscan priest, was Pastor from 1996-2001, followed by Fr. Michael Giglio who served as Pastor from 2001-2004.  Fr. Nick O’Brien was Pastor from 2004-2015.  Fr. Val DeVera was Parochial Administrator from 2015-2018. Currently, Fr. Luis Salazar serves as Parochial Administrator of Saint Anthony parish since his appointment on September 22, 2018.

God has blessed Saint Anthony over this period of time. With Him and our faithful parishioners, we are sure to receive many more blessings in the years to come!