Epiphany Cathedral, Catholic cathedral in Venice, Florida, United States
Epiphany Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral in Venice, Florida, dedicated in 1980 and serving as the seat of the Diocese of Venice since 1984. A rebuilding project began in 2024 with a new front entrance and gathering space, a barrel-vaulted ceiling, new furnishings, and upgraded HVAC and other systems.
Epiphany began in 1935 as a mission of St. Martha Parish in Sarasota, partly so Kentucky Military Institute faculty and students would not make a 36-mile round trip for Mass. Its first church was a former Venice Army Airfield chapel moved to Tampa Avenue and Nassau Street in 1947. The present church was dedicated on June 29, 1980, and became a cathedral when Pope John Paul II created the Diocese of Venice on June 16, 1984.
The parish school, opened by Msgr. George W. Cummings in 1959 with 66 students in four grades, held classes at the Kentucky Military Institute until its own building was finished; Benedictine Sisters taught there from 1959 to 1968. Santa Maria Chapel was added to the school in 1998, and in 2007 the school received a Blue Ribbon of Excellence Award.
The cathedral stands at the corner of Tampa Avenue and Nassau Street, the site where the former Venice Army Airfield chapel was moved in 1947. A rebuilding project begun with a groundbreaking on May 30, 2024, is expected to last two years and will add a new front entrance and gathering space, so parts of the site may be closed off during works.
The first Epiphany church was a chapel moved from the Venice Army Airfield to Tampa Avenue and Nassau Street in 1947, bought and furnished for $11,165.30. It was later renovated into a parish hall and eventually torn down after the 1980 church opened.
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