The history of the Dominican friars in Trinidad and Tobago goes as back as far as 1513, when the first missionaries – two Spanish Dominicans, Francisco de Cordova and Juan Graces – set foot in Trinidad. They were also to be the first Christian martyrs, betrayed by the Spanish soldiers who came with them.

After a lapse of 350 years, the Dominican friars returned to Trinidad. They came in 1864, a party of six friars from the French province of Lyons, who had been requested by the newly appointed Archbishop Gonin, himself a French Dominican.

In all, seventeen French friars worked and died in Trinidad between 1897 and 1933, when the last one, Fr. Eusebe Poulat, died as parish priest of Tortuga. When in 1943, the seminary of St. John Vianney and the Ugandan Martyrs was opened by Archbishop Finbar Ryan, the majority of parishes in the archdiocese were administered by the Dominicans from Ireland. The Archbishop stressed the importance of guiding priestly vocations to the diocese, a policy that has been responsible for the establishment of a strong diocesan clergy, who well exceed the number of Irish Dominicans working in the diocese.

Shortly after the Dominicans took leave of the Cathedral Presbytery and handed over the administration of the Cathedral to the diocesan clergy, the community of friars transferred to St. Finbar’s church, setting up a home in the house of the Immaculate conception close by the church.

In 1963 the priory of Holy Cross, Arima, was founded. For a number of years, starting in 1979, it was home to the Dominican noviciate which for a while was a common noviciate for many Dominicans in the region.