Our Story
Parish History
St. Peter Catholic Church in Jupiter, FL was established on September 29, 1987 with the assignment of Rev. Charles Notabartolo as the founding pastor.
The first Mass was celebrated on November 8, 1987 in the cafeteria of the old Jupiter High School. There were approximately four hundred founding families who joined St. Peter within the first year of the parish being in existence. Over the next four years, Mass was also held in the cafeteria of Jupiter Middle School. On September 16, 1991 the first Mass was celebrated in the multi-purpose building which presently serves as the parish hall. With the completion of the multi-purpose center, the parish was able to accommodate many new activities in response to the growing parish and the growth in population in the town of Jupiter, FL.
After many years of hard work and parishioner sacrifice, ground was broken for the new church. The dream became a reality. The church was completed in the Fall of 2002, and the first Mass was celebrated on December 21, 2002. Bishop Sean P. O’Malley dedicated the church on January 5, 2003. In February 2003, Rev. Chuck Notabartolo was appointed Vicar General of the Diocese of Palm Beach, and Rev. Donald T. Finney was appointed as the second pastor of St. Peter.
The St. Peter Parish family continues to grow and respond to the pastoral needs of the people in Jupiter. The Spanish Mass and Hispanic Ministry began in May 2003 and is greatly enhanced by the work of the Guadalupan Sisters.
In the Fall of 2003, our inter-parochial school, All Saints Catholic School, opened and began a new chapter in the history of our parish. In the Fall of 2007, a renovation to the Parish Hall was completed which added eight new permanent meeting rooms to accommodate our growing number of ministries.
Also in November of 2007, our Parish celebrated its 20th Anniversary, culminating in the dedication of our 20th Anniversary Meditation Garden as a place of quiet prayer and meditation on our Parish grounds. St. Peter continues to experience tremendous growth both in numbers and in the ministries that are offered. The dream of those founding parishioners has become a reality and the future of our parish is indeed bright.
The patron saint of our parish is Peter the Apostle. Peter was a native of Bethsaida near Lake Tiberias. First named Simon, he lived and worked as a fisherman with his brother Andrew who introduced him to Jesus. Jesus gave Simon the name “Cephas”, the Aramaic equivalent of Peter (The Rock) in Greek. Peter was the chosen leader of the apostles and is mentioned more frequently in the Gospels than any other apostle. He became the first pope of the Catholic Church and was crucified at the foot of Vatican Hill in Rome. The church celebrates his feast day on June 29th.