Since he landed in the region on the feast of Corpus Christi, Pineda named the area along the southeast coast of what is now Texas, "Corpus Christi."
The Franciscans arrived in Corpus Christi in the 1500's, and by the late 1830's Corpus Christi had become a trading post. It might have remained an obscure outpost, but in 1845 General Zachary Taylor and his troops camped there in preparation for war with Mexico.
Corpus Christi first became part of the Catholic Diocese of Texas, which was established in 1850. At the time, Corpus Christi had about 30 Catholic families, most of them Hispanic.
In 1912, the Diocese of Corpus Christi was established. Pope Pius XII called it "the diocese with the most beautiful name."
- Little White Book, Diocese of Saginaw