The St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church congregation has a new church and chapel at 8000 Eldorado Parkway in Frisco.

The dedication of the 1,500 seat, Romanesque-style church is Dec. 7 and Dec. 8 will be the first Sunday service in the new facility.

Daily Mass, small weddings, funerals, and other special ceremonies will be celebrated in the daily chapel, according to church officials.

St. Francis of Assisi's roots in Frisco reach back to 1964. As the congregation formed and grew, it met in many different places before buying 28 acres at Eldorado Parkway and Rogers Road and building a 40,000-square-foot multi-purpose building, which opened on Christmas Eve in 2001.

The new church and chapel replace the 2001 building.

Church officials built the new facility in anticipation of future Frisco growth. Church officials said Frisco is expected to exceed Plano's population by 2025, and Plano is served by four Catholic churches.

"With the dwindling number of priests, and the explosion of growth in the area, it was felt that larger was better," said Mark Smith, parish Director of Development.

Also taken into account when planning the size of the church is that St. Francis is one of the few Catholic churches in the immediate vicinity with a fully developed Spanish language ministry.

"There would be no St. Francis without the Hispanic founders of this community. Ministry among this community is an essential part of our mission," said Msgr. Larry Pichard, parish pastor.

The Romanesque style was the architectural style most used before and during the time of St. Francis, the parish patron.

"After several years of parishioner surveys, general town meetings, and many meetings with parish leaders in various groups, we arrived at the information needed to design this structure," Pichard said.