It is the oldest bishopric of the Latin Rite of worship in terms of activity in the East Indies, with its origins linked to the Portuguese discoveries, and their subsequent arrival at the St Mary's islands and Calicut, on the coast of the Malabar region.

The Metropolitan has a single suffragan see: After the Portuguese conquest of Goa by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510, King Manuel I built a chapel there in honour of St. Catherine, named patron of the city in 1518.

[6] On 3 November 1534 the creation of the diocese was confirmed by the Aequum reputamus [pt] bull of Pope Paul III, since Clement VII's death had prevented the publication of its establishment.

[4][7] In the course of time other dioceses were included in the metropolitan area of Goa: Macau, Funai in Japan, Cranganore and Meliapor in India, Nanjing and Beijing in China, and Mozambique in Africa.

With the same bull, the diocese of Daman was established, to which was attached the title of the Archdiocese of Cranganore, that had been suppressed by the 24 April 1838 Multa praeclare decree of Pope Gregory XVI.

He also enjoyed the privilege of presiding over all the synods of the East Indies When the diocese of Daman was dissolved on 1 May 1928 with Inter Apostolicam, the title of Cranganore was attached to the Goa archdiocese.

With the Quoniam Archdioecesi bull of 30 January 1978, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Raul Nicolau Gonçalves as Archbishop of Goa and Daman, also titled ad honorem Patriarch of the East Indies.

On 25 November 2006, Pope Benedict XVI with Cum Christi Evangelii made the diocese of Sindhudurg a suffragan of Goa and Daman, together with which it formed a new ecclesiastical province.