Dakota County is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Minnesota, located in the east central portion of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 439,882. The population of Dakota County was estimated to be 447,440 in 2023. The county seat is Hastings. Dakota County is named for the Dakota Sioux tribal bands who inhabited the area. The name is recorded as "Dahkotah" in the United States Census records until 1851. Dakota County is included in the Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington, MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States with about 3.71 million residents. The largest city in Dakota County is the city of Lakeville, the ninth-largest city in Minnesota and fifth-largest Twin Cities suburb. The county is bordered by the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers on the north, and the state of Wisconsin on the east.
Harry Joseph Flynn was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis from 1995 to 2008. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette from 1989 to 1994.
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.
Daniel Austin Dowling was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the second archbishop of what was then the Archdiocese of Saint Paul in Minnesota from 1919 until his death.
John Gregory Murray was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Saint Paul from 1931 until his death in 1956. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Hartford from 1920 to 1925 and as Bishop of Portland in Maine from 1925 to 1932.
Leo Binz was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Dubuque (1954–1961) and as Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis (1962–1975). A native of Illinois, he became a priest in 1924 and a bishop in 1942.
John Robert Roach was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis from 1975 to 1995. The first St. Paul archbishop to have been born in Minnesota, Roach had national prominence as deliverer of benediction at Jimmy Carter's inauguration in 1977 and head of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops from 1980 to 1983. His tenure was also touched by scandal, with a drunk driving arrest and failure to properly handle sexual abuse cases by clergy. His impact on the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, is commemorated by a building renamed after him.
The Catholic Spirit is the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Founded by John Ireland in 1911 as an 8-page weekly named The Catholic Bulletin and with a subscription base of 2,500, it was renamed to The Catholic Spirit in 1996 and currently circulates to 54,000 households in the Twin Cities area twice per month.
Saint Thomas Academy, originally known as St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary and formerly known as St. Thomas Military Academy, is the only all-male, Catholic, college-preparatory, military high school in Minnesota. It is located in Mendota Heights near Saint Paul. The academy has a middle school and a high school. The high school students are required to participate in military leadership classes, as the school was previously part of Army JROTC. Its sister school, Convent of the Visitation, is located across the street. Many classes and after-school activities involve both schools. It is located within the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
St. Peter's Catholic Church in Mendota Heights is the oldest church in continuous use in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Established as a community in 1840, a log church was built in 1842, and the still-standing historic church was constructed in 1853. A modern parish building now serves as the worship site for the community, but the historic church is still used for various liturgies.
William Henry Bullock was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Madison in Wisconsin from 1993 to 2003.
Leo Christopher Byrne was a Catholic bishop who served as the Roman Catholic coadjutor Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
Jakob Missia was a Slovene prelate of the Catholic Church who was Archbishop of Gorizia and Gradisca from 1898 until his death. He was made a cardinal in 1899, the first Slovenian to be given that rank. He was previously Bishop of Ljubljana from 1884 to 1898.
Oheyawahi-Pilot Knob is a scenic overlook, and a Native American gathering place and burial ground in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, United States. The overlook provides views of the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, Fort Snelling, and the Minneapolis and St. Paul skylines. It was the site of the 1851 Treaty of Mendota between the United States federal government and the Dakota people of Minnesota, who consider the site sacred. In 2017, Oheyawahi-Pilot Knob was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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 1970 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.
Francis A. Missia was a Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul. Born in Mota, Ljutomer, Austria, he emigrated to the United States in 1903 and played an important role in liturgical music as one of the most prominent Catholic choirmasters in the Midwest and Northwest United States during the 20th century.
The Ninth National Eucharistic Congress was a Catholic Eucharistic congress held from June 23 to 26, 1941, at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. The event, meant to foster devotion to the sacrament of the Eucharist, attracted hundreds of thousands of attendees. While primarily at the Eucharistic Center set up at the fairgrounds, other events took place at Saint Paul Union Depot, the Minneapolis Auditorium, the St. Paul Auditorium, the Cathedral of Saint Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary elsewhere in Minnesota. The Archdiocese of Saint Paul, led by Archbishop John Gregory Murray, was the host of the congress.
James Michael Reardon was a Canadian-American Catholic priest and professor of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul. A prominent churchman in the first half of the 20th century, he was rector of the Basilica of Saint Mary from 1921 until his death and wrote the definitive history of the diocese.
The Chapel of Saint Paul, which later served as the first Cathedral of Saint Paul, was a log chapel built on the bluffs of the Mississippi River in 1841 by Lucien Galtier. It served as the first cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Saint Paul from June 1851 to December 1851. It was also used as a school until it was eventually dismantled. While the building only stood for around two decades, it left a lasting impact as the eponym of the capital city of Minnesota, Saint Paul.
Calvary Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery in Saint Paul, Minnesota, established in 1856.
