St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in Dagupan City was established on October 3, 1955 by Archbishop Mariano A. Madriaga. At the outset, it was pioneered by Bishop Theodore Schu, SVD who was from Yenchow of the Shantung province, China who saw the need for a new apostolate for the Chinese in the province of Pangasinan. He attempted to look for a piece of land that would be a possible place for establishing a new parish where Chinese priests as well as the Filipino-Chinese community could be cohesively gathered that the spiritual and pastoral needs of the Chinese could be attended.

In 1959, the Societas Verbi Domini (SVD) were in charge of the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate where a school was established. It consisted at the beginning an Elementary School and High School buildings, a Dormitory and a Kindergarten. It was on January 15, 1967 that a new church was built and blessed. In 1965, the Catholic Trade, a store for books, images and other religious articles was established within the parish premises. On October 3, 1971, the parish center, rectory, parish hall and other parish offices were all completed.