Our parish began on August 25, 1956 with the arrival of Fr. David Heffernan who celebrated our first Mass in Jalbert’s Laboratory. Two weeks later, thanks to the combined efforts of many of those first 300 families, the parish church moved into the "Jelly Factory" warehouse. Our boundaries went from the Delray Beach line to Pompano. In August of 1960, four Religious Sisters of Mercy from Skibberen, County Cork, Ireland came to staff our school and resided at 745 Palmetto Park Road until the convent was ready in 1963.
In March of 1961, under our second pastor, Fr. Reardon, our provisional church was dedicated and the ground-breaking took place for our new school. Within two years, with the addition of another building, we went from an enrollment of 250 to 600 children in K-8th grade.
Fr. Paul Manning was pastor until Fr. Ronald Pusak was appointed in the spring of 1972. By now St. Joan of Arc had grown to over 3000 families, and we eventually branched out to six sister parishes: St. Ambrose, Ascension, St. Lucy, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Jude, and St. Elizabeth. Our parish ministries were underway.
In January, 1984 Msgr. John McMahon became our pastor. The northern end of the Archdiocese of Miami became known as the Diocese of Palm Beach, and St. Joan of Arc became its southern most parish. On December 11, 1988 our present church was dedicated by Thomas V. Daily, the first bishop of the Palm Beach Diocese, and in 1990, the old church become Our Lady of Mercy Center - our multi-use social center.
In 1995, the widow of a businessman from Minnesota donated one million dollars to the parish as a challenge gift to provide space for a pre-kindergarten. Because our parishioners responded with generous donations of their time, talent and treasure a new two-story wing was added that houses grades 5-8, an art room, media center, science lab and administrative offices. It was dedicated by Bishop Symons on August 28, 1997.
Currently we have approximately 7,100 registered families and over 60 active ministries that make up this parish family.