The Diocese of Saint Cloud covers Benton, Douglas, Grant, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Otter Tail, Pope, Sherburne, Stearns, Stevens, Todd, Traverse, Wadena, and Wilkin counties.

Cloud area was offered by Reverend Francis de Vivaldi, a missionary to the Winnebago reservation in Long Prairie in 1851.

"[2]Bishop Joseph Crétin of Saint Paul sent Reverend Francis Pierz in 1852 to the Ojibwe Nation (Chippewa), giving him responsibility for an apostolate consisting of central and northern Minnesota with a large Native American congregation.

Wanting to attract more European Catholics to the area, he wrote articles in German newspapers about the availability of good agricultural land.

The pope named Abbot Rupert Seidenbusch, leader of the Abbey of St. Louis on the Lake, as the vicar apostolic.

After his consecration, Seidenbusch traveled across the vicariate by buggy, wagon, and rail and continued to solicit donations from Europe.

On September 22, 1888 Pope Leo XIII suppressed the vicariate to erect the Diocese of Saint Cloud.

[7][8] The pope named Monsignor John Zardetti, general vicar of the Vicariate of Dakota, as the first bishop of Saint Cloud.

[10] Suffering from the cold climate, the Vatican allowed Zardetti in 1894 to resign as bishop and return to Rome to serve in the Roman Curia.

Trobec led the diocese through a time of growth, with a particular focus on priestly vocations and Catholic education.

[13] In 1941, Pope Pius XII appointed Reverend Peter Bartholome as coadjutor bishop of the diocese to assist Busch.

[17] The pope in 1995 appointed Bishop John Kinney of the Diocese of Bismarck to replace Hanus in Saint Cloud.

In 2015, two women sued the diocese, claiming that they had been sexually abused by Reverend Donald Rieder from Randall when they were ages 11 to 15 in the 1960s.

[21] In August 2018, the diocese announced its cooperation with a proposed grand jury investigation to disclose names of accused priests.

"[25] In 2022, the diocese published an update list of diocesan clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.