More than sixty years ago, Land O' Lakes Catholics traveled to St. Anthony's Church in Brooksville to attend Mass. Then in 1952, thirty adults from this community received approval from Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley to establish a mission church in Land O' Lakes. Because of the shortage of diocesan priests, the Archbishop had requested the Benedictines at St. Leo Abbey to serve the mission in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.
On October 5, 1952, in the VFW hall on Highway 41, the first Mass was celebrated by Right Reverend Father Francis Sadler, O.S.B., the Abbott of St. Leo. Since October 7th is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the mission was given her name.
The exuberance and dedication of this small group of parishioners, spearheaded by a newly organizaed Holy Name Society and a Women's Society, soon resulted in the development of a fund for the purchase of land and building a church. By the end of 1957 the land had been purchased, the building contract signed, with the ground breaking to follow. The general contractor built the walls, the roof, and the floor of our church, but the men of the parish did the rest - painting, wiring, plumbing, partitions, ceiling, and landscaping. On July 7, 1958 the first Mass was celebrated in the new church. The crucifix and the statues of Our Lady and St. Joseph, that grace our new worship center were contributed by a parishioner and installed for their first Mass.
The Parish Center was built on the Highway 54 property in 1979. In 1982 the wall behind the altar of the church was taken out to add six pews to the front of the church. When Father Ron Aubin arrived on July 1, 1994, we had outgrown the original church and a search was on for new property, which was purchased on Collier Parkway. In September 1994 a switch was made. The church was moved to the Parish Center and the original church became Mary's House. After many plans for the new site were finalized, we had the ground breaking for the new Transitional Worship Center on August 15, 1998. On November 27, 1999 the Most Reverend Robert N. Lynch, Bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg opened the doors to our present home.
In 2007, the present Mary's House and Immaculata Hall, along with an addition to the office building were opened. In 2018, we opened Mater Dei for our youth, which also includes the Nicodemus Room for our adult ministries.
On May 18, 2002 we were especially blessed with the ordination of our first priest from our parish, Reverend Bill Dallas Wilson, followed by Reverend Kyle Smith on May 17, 2014 and Reverend Israel "Izzie" Herdandez on May 15, 2021. We pray for many more.
Pastors of Our Lady of the Rosary Church
-56 Reverend James Hoge, O.S.B.
1956-58 Reverend Cassian Foley, O.S.B.
1958-63 Reverend Michael Leap, O.S.B.
1963-66 Reverend Aloysius Dressman, O.S.B.
1966-70 Reverend Edward Martineau, O.S.B.
1970-72 Reverend Peter Reynolds
1972-73 Reverend John Bolger
1973-94 Reverend Stephen Dambrauskas
1994-2021 Rev. Msgr. Ronald Aubin
2021- Reverend Justin P. Paskert
Deacons Ordained from Our Parish
Deacon Forrest "Bud" Evans
Deacon Augustin "Augie" Ortiz
Deacon Eric "Rick" Wells
Deacon David "Dave" Lesieur
Deacon Dennis Snyder
Deacon Kenneth "Ken" Anderson
Deacon Frank DeSanto
Former Motto: "Just Pedaling"
Our former Reverend Ronald Aubin introduced the theme and motto "Just Pedal" to focus on how we are to frame our prayer life and our relationship with the Lord - continuing to pedal on a tandem bike as the Lord sits in front controlling the bike itself. Here is the poem Reverend Ronald used that inspired the motto of "Just Pedal":
At first, I sat in the front and Jesus in the rear.
I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was near.
I could feel his help when the road got steep.
Then one day Jesus changed seats.
“Pedal,” he said, “Pedal”
Suddenly everything went topsy-turvy.
We were out of control like Huey and Dewey
on a whirlwind ride at breakneck speeds.
To and fro “Wheeeee” he laughed indeed.
“Pedal” he said, “Pedal.”
Mile after mile I could hardly hold on,
“This is madness,” I cried, “you must slow down...”
But Jesus just grinned
As we continued to spin
“Pedal,” he said, “Pedal”