The Santa Barbara Pastoral Region is a pastoral region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the Roman Catholic Church. It covers Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in the State of California, an area with a population in excess of 1.2 million. The region has 37 parishes, six high schools, 18 elementary schools, four hospitals, and four Spanish missions, including Mission Santa Barbara and Mission San Buenaventura. The region was created in 1986 as part of a plan by Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony to make church leaders more accessible by dividing the sprawling Los Angeles Archdiocese into five pastoral regions.