The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, Bishop of Southeast Florida

Bishop Leo Frade was born in Havana, Cuba, on October 10, 1943. He grew up in a staunchly Methodist home. As a teenager at a youth conference he felt a strong call to serve God, and was for a time a lay missionary in the Sierra Maestra Mountains where Castro’s revolution began.

In 1960 the church sent him to Asbury College, a Methodist-affiliated school in Kentucky. His civil rights activism cost him the scholarship at the end of his junior year, and he went to New York to work where his family had moved. It was during this time that he found the Episcopal Church and claims that his “conversion” took place during an Easter Sunday service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

He moved to Miami the same year that the Diocese of Southeast Florida was formed in 1969 where he continued his journey as a layman in the Episcopal Church. He worked as a General Sales Manager for an international cargo airline. In Miami he attended Biscayne College, today’s St. Thomas University.  He was prepared for confirmation by the late Bishop Leo Alard, presented by Canon Max Salvador, confirmed by Bishop Ervine Swift. After a few years his vocation was renewed and went to the School of Theology of the University of the South, Sewanee, TN where he received his Master of Divinity.

In 1977 he was ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood in Miami by Bishop James Duncan. His first parish was Holy Cross in Miami. He also served churches in New Orleans, LA and Orlando, FL.

He was consecrated Bishop of Honduras on January 25, 1984 and for almost 17 years he helped to grow the diocese, making it the fastest growing diocese in the Episcopal Church at the time. He was involved in social and justice issues as well as a strong commitment to evangelism.

He served as a member of Executive Council, one as a priest and later on as a bishop, he is a member of the Lutheran Episcopal Coordinating Committee and served on the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations, Vice-President of the IX Province. He also serves as Chair of Our Little Roses Foreign Mission Society and as a member of the board of Food for the Poor. He has received honorary doctorates from General Theological Seminary, University of the South and the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest.