Cathedral of Saint Paul | |
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Chapel of Saint Paul | |
44°56′40″N93°05′26″W / 44.944521°N 93.0905402°W | |
Country | United States |
Denomination | Catholic Church |
Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
History | |
Founder(s) | Lucien Galtier |
Consecrated | November 1, 1841 |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Demolished |
Years built | 1841 |
Construction cost | $65 ($2,381 in 2023) |
Demolished | 1856 |
Specifications | |
Length | 20 feet (6.1 m) (later 38 feet (12 m)) |
Width | 18 feet (5.5 m) |
Materials | Red and white oak logs |
Clergy | |
Bishop(s) | Joseph Crétin |
The Chapel of Saint Paul, which later served as the first Cathedral of Saint Paul, was a log chapel built in 1840 by Lucien Galtier. It would serve as the first cathedral of the Diocese of Saint Paul from June 1851 to December 1851.
In 1840, Catholic missionary Lucien Galtier was sent by Bishop Mathias Loras of Dubuque to minister to the French Canadians in Minnesota. [1] Galtier built two log chapels; one named after Saint Peter built in Mendota. Seeking a suitable spot for a chapel on the other side of the river, Galtier looked at several claims offered to him but found them unsuitable; one was so low to the river that Galtier quipped "the idea of having the church swept down to St. Louis one day" didn't please him. He looked for a location that was protected from the elements but still close enough to the river that steamboats could land and communication with other settlers along the river was possible. [2] The location decided upon was the bluff above the "Pig's Eye" riverboat landing downriver from Fort Snelling. [a] The chapel, dedicated to the Apostle Paul, was built in October 1941 using red and white oak logs secured by wooden pins. Bark-covered slabs created the roof of the 20 feet (6.1 m) by 18 feet (5.5 m) building. [4] [2] [5] [6] : 43 It cost around $65 ($2,381 in 2023) to build. [5] It was dedicated on November 1, 1841. The chapel was the first house of worship to be erected within the current city limits. [6] : 43–44 Galtier remarked that the chapel called to mind the "stable of Bethlehem". [2]
While it is said that the area had up until that point been referred to as "Pig's Eye" or "Pig's Eye Landing" after the tavern of settler Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, the landing by the chapel gradually became named known as "Saint Paul's Landing". Through this the name of the chapel gradually was applied to the entire settlement. [7] [8] [9] The name Saint Paul was then first used in official records at the marriage of Vetel and Adele Guerin on January 26, 1841. [10] A poem published in the Minnesota Pioneer on New Years Day, 1850, concluded:
While the last few lines of the poem have been attributed to Galtier as a speech at the dedication Mass of the chapel, the poem has been more commonly attributed to newspaper editor James M. Goodhue. [5] [12] [13] [7]
In 1847, Father Augustin Ravoux later enlarged the structure, adding another eighteen feet. When Joseph Crétin was appointed as the bishop of the newly established Diocese of St. Paul in July 1851, the log chapel became the first cathedral. [6] : 43–44 Dismayed at the size of the building, Crétin said the chapel was "worse than a stable" and began construction on a new building. [14] : 48 The chapel would only serve in the role of cathedral for a few months, as the larger, second cathedral took its place in December 1851. [15] [16] [6] : 77
The chapel was dismantled in 1856. It is thought that some of the logs were used in the construction of buildings at Saint Joseph's Academy. [6] : 48
Saint Paul is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center of Minnesota's government. The Minnesota State Capitol and the state government offices all sit on a hill close to the city's downtown district. One of the oldest cities in Minnesota, Saint Paul has several historic neighborhoods and landmarks, such as the Summit Avenue Neighborhood, the James J. Hill House, and the Cathedral of Saint Paul. Like the adjacent city of Minneapolis, Saint Paul is known for its cold, snowy winters and humid summers.
Mathias Loras was a French Catholic priest in the United States who served as the first Bishop of Dubuque, in what would become the state of Iowa. He was the first president of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, from 1830 to 1832, and is the founder of what is now known as Loras College in Dubuque.
The Cathedral of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, along with the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis. One of the most distinctive cathedrals in the United States, it sits on Cathedral Hill overlooking downtown Saint Paul and features a distinctive copper-clad dome. It is dedicated to Paul the Apostle, who is also the namesake of the City of Saint Paul. The current building opened in 1915 as the fourth cathedral of the archdiocese to bear this name. On March 25, 2009, it was designated as the National Shrine of the Apostle Paul by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is the third-largest Catholic cathedral and sixth-largest church in the United States.
Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant was the first official resident of the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. His exploits propelled him to local fame and infamy, with his name briefly adorning the village that became Minnesota's capital city.
The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. It is led by an archbishop who administers the archdiocese from the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The archbishop has both a cathedral and co-cathedral: the mother church – the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul, and the co-cathedral, the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis.
Joseph Crétin was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cretin Avenue in St. Paul, Cretin-Derham Hall High School, and Cretin Hall at the University of St. Thomas are named for him.
Cretin-Derham Hall High School (CDH) is a private, co-educational Catholic high school in Saint Paul, Minnesota operated by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. It is co-sponsored by the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
The Diocese of Saint Cloud is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in central Minnesota in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
St. Peter's Catholic Church in Mendota Heights is the oldest church in continuous use in the state of Minnesota.
Saint Paul is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, the county seat of Ramsey County, and the state capital of Minnesota. The origin and growth of the city were spurred by the proximity of Fort Snelling, the first major United States military installation in the area, as well as by the city's location on the northernmost navigable port of the Upper Mississippi River.
St. Joseph's Academy was a Catholic school for girls in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, from 1851 to 1971. Its origins trace to 1851, when the Sisters of St. Joseph opened a school for girls in a log cabin in the frontier settlement. In 1863 the school relocated to a new building, which was expanded over the following decades into a complex that still stands today as the oldest extant Catholic school building in the state of Minnesota.
Lucien Galtier was the first Roman Catholic priest who served in Minnesota. He was born in southern France in the town of Saint-Affrique, department of Aveyron. The year of his birth is somewhat uncertain, some sources claiming 1811 but his tomb at Prairie du Chien, WI, bearing the date December 17, 1812. In the 1830s, people were settling across the Minnesota River from Fort Snelling in the area of Mendota, Minnesota. He departed from LeHavre, France and arrived in New York City onboard the Lyons on October 12, 1838. Mathias Loras, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dubuque, Iowa learned of these settlers and journeyed up the Mississippi River to visit the settlers in the area. He wrote to his sister that "the Catholics of St. Peters amounted to one hundred and eighty five." The bishop saw a need to send a missionary to the area the next year. Galtier spoke little English when he arrived in 1840.
The Church of All Saints is a parish of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Davenport. The church is located in Keokuk, Iowa, United States. The church building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as St. Peter Church, the name of the congregation that built it.
West Seventh is a neighborhood and city district in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It comprises three smaller neighborhoods: from west to east, the West End, Uppertown, and Irvine Park. The neighborhood lies at the base of Summit Hill and along the Mississippi River's western bluffs, spanning the entire length of West 7th Street. It is also known as Old Fort Road and the Fort Road area. The street follows a historic Native American and fur trader path along the river from downtown Saint Paul to Fort Snelling.
Augustin Ravoux was a French priest and missionary who served in the area preceding Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, in Minnesota.
Pigs Eye Lake is a riverine wetland that covers 628 acres in Ramsey County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The Mdewakanton Village of Kaposia was located on the northern end until 1837 when the village was moved across the Mississippi to what is now South St. Paul. The 1930 construction of lock and dam #2 in Hastings down river, is responsible for its size and depth. The wetland is part of what the Army Corps of Engineers has designated as pond 2 of the upper Mississippi waterway. It is south of downtown St Paul on the east side of the river. Battle Creek enters the wetland from the northeast. In the 1960s the Army Corps of Engineers dredged two channels into it. One, out of the southwest corner, went due west out to the main river channel. The second went due south for barge traffic. Along that south channel the Army Corps created an industrial park with spoils from dredging the main channel. That portion of the industrial park has moorings for several barges at a time. In planning for the future the Army Corps built a levee defining the north side of the industrial park thereby creating an area for future dredging spoils.
Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary, known familiarly as Naz Hall, was a high school seminary in Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States, serving the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Founded in 1923 by Archbishop Austin Dowling, for most of its time Nazareth Hall educated students through four years of high school and the first two years of college. Over 600 alumni were eventually ordained to the priesthood. Due to declining enrollment and changing attitudes towards high school seminaries after the Second Vatican Council, it closed in 1971 with its collegiate functions being replaced by Saint John Vianney Seminary. The campus was sold and is now the site of the University of Northwestern.
The third Cathedral of Saint Paul was a Catholic cathedral in Saint Paul, Minnesota, built from 1854 to 1858. It would serve as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul from 1858 to 1914.
The second Cathedral of Saint Paul was a building that served as the Catholic cathedral of the Diocese of Saint Paul in Minnesota from 1851 to 1858 and then as the Cathedral School, predecessor of Cretin High School, until its demolition in 1889.
"The Minnesota Pioneer to its Patrons" is a humorous poem about the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, published in the Minnesota Pioneer on January 2, 1850. It has variously been attributed to the newspaper editor James Goodhue or to Father Lucien Galtier.
Galtier's construction of the Chapel of St. Paul (on Second [Bench] Street, between Cedar and Minnesota) provided a new name for the settlement.