For a complete history with pictures, visit the St. Francis Borgia page.
It was in the Fall ot the year 1833 that 12 German families from the area of Osnabrueck, Hanover, landed in the area of Washington, MO. The next year, 1834, they were visited by Jesuit missionaries and thus began a long history of St. Francis Borgia Church's association with the Jesuits. The bulk of this eary history is found in "Historia Residentiae Washingtonensis, 1833 - 1886", a year by year chronicle of the Jesuit Washington residence written in Latin. It should be noted that the patron saint of the Church was a Jesuit.
In 1838, at the present cemetery site, a small wooden church was built and a cemetery laid out. The first resident Jesuit pastor arrived in 1839. A substantial brick church was built within the town limits in 1846. The cornerstone of the present church was laid in 1867 and the Church was formally dedicated in 1869. The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) presence began in 1859 and continues to the present day. This presence has been and remains one of the chief assets of the parish.
By 1894, the emphasis of the ministry of the Jesuits had changed and they were desirous to leave what had been their missionary area. It was in this year that the Franciscan era at St. Francis Borgia began. For many years the Order of Friars Minor (OFM) of the Sacred Heart Province would provide the serving priests of the parish. They in turn would also leave and since 1990 the diocesan priests of the St. Louis Archdiocese have been entrusted with the ministry of the Church.