History of Bishop

We trace the earliest roots of our school and every Catholic school in California to the educational system founded by Saint Junipero Serra, the tireless Apostle of California.

Bishop Diego High School combines the rich heritage of our predecessor schools. In 1914, Dolores School opened a Catholic high school program for girls in downtown Santa Barbara. The school transitioned to the name Notre Dame High School in the early 1920s and became The Santa Barbara Catholic High School, a co-educational secondary school in 1940. In 1959, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles assumed sponsorship of the school, moving it to our present campus and taking California's first bishop, Bishop Francisco García Diego y Moreno, as its patron. In 2005, Bishop Diego High School became an independent Catholic high school.

Over the years, our school has been blessed by instruction and leadership from the Jesuit Fathers, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Franciscan Community, and the Josephite Fathers.