[4] Besides a small number of Latin Rite locals, most Catholics in Iran are foreigners living in the country.

The first Roman Catholic diocese in Iran was founded by Dominicans in 1318 at Soltaniyeh which then was the capital of the Mongol Ilkhan rulers.

[6] The diocese was established by Italian Dominican friars on October 12, 1629 when Isfahan was the capital of the Safavid Empire.

In consequence the titular diocese was administered from the see of Baghdad with only a handful of Catholic families surviving in Isfahan.

When Barden was expelled from the country in the beginning of the Islamic revolution in 1980, it took another 9 years until the Salesian Ignazio Bedini was consecrated new archbishop.