The cathedral church is located in West Street near the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

[3] Its patron is St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish missionary, a member of the precursor group of the Society of Jesus and close associate of its founder, Ignatius of Loyola.

Petitions were made for a permanent parish priest to be assigned to Nassau in 1885, after which responsibility was transferred to the Archdiocese of New York, which sent Fr.

[4] Within a few days, a site was selected and Lady Georgiana Ayde-Curran, who had led the efforts to establish the parish, laid the cornerstone for the first Catholic church in the Bahamas.

[4] The first Mass was celebrated November 7, 1886, and Michael Corrigan, Archbishop of New York, dedicated the church to St. Francis Xavier on February 13, 1887.