[2] The first missionaries to come to Suriname were the Franciscans in 1683, but the harshness of the climate did not favor the arrival of other priests, so that up to 1786 the country was totally abandoned by the Catholic missions.
Since 1786 some secular priests opened a missionary center, but soon had to flee to the opposition of the ministers of other Christian denominations.
When in 1816 the territory passed into the hands of the Dutch, was guaranteed freedom of worship.
This was the real starting point of Catholic evangelization of what today is called Suriname.
Today in the country there is only one Catholic ecclesiastical district, the Diocese of Paramaribo, suffragan of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago.