The history of the Old Cathedral and the early history of the City of St. Louis are intertwined. The Old Cathedral Museum, located on the west side of the Cathedral, contains many artifacts and relics from the early days of the Catholic Church in St. Louis and also historical information. When Pierre Liguest Laclede and his First Lieutenant Auguste Chouteau founded the City of St. Louis in 1764, Laclede dedicated the square just west of where he built his home, to church and graveyard purposes. The first Catholic Church in St. Louis built on this site, was a small log house built in 1770. St. Louis IX, King of France, is the Patron Saint of the City and of the Church. In 1776, the mission of St. Louis became a canonical parish and the second log cabin church was built. Its bell, the gift of Lieutenant Governor Don Piernos and enriched by 200 Spanish silver dollars in its casting, can be seen today in the Old Cathedral Museum.
In 1826 St. Louis became a Diocese and the following year Bishop Joseph Rosati, C.M. became the first bishop of the Diocese of St. Louis. The cornerstone of the present Cathedral building was laid in 1831 and the dedication of the building took place in 1834. This was the first Cathedral west of the Mississippi and until 1845 it was the only parish church in the city of St. Louis. It is truly the "Mother Church" of the City of St. Louis. The first St. Vincent de Paul Society Conference in America was founded in 1845 at this Cathedral. A bronze plaque on the facade of the this historic Church commemorates the founding of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in America. The Old Cathedral St. Vincent de Paul Society Conference continues to meet here on a regular basis and helps the poor and homeless in the neighborhood.
This building was the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of St. Louis until 1914, when the New Cathedral on Lindell Blvd in the more "fashionable" western part of the city was dedicated, The title of Cathedral passed from this venerable Church, but to most St. Louisans this Church remained the "Old" Cathedral. During the following years little public attention was drawn to the Old Cathedral. However on Christmas day in 1922, a High Mass, the farewell service of Monsignor Tannrath, then Pastor of the Old Cathedral, was broadcast "live" over Radio Station KSD. This marked the first time that the world heard the broadcast of Holy Mass or any other Christmas liturgical service.
On January 27, 1961, Pope John XXIII signed a Decree naming the former Cathedral of St. Louis, a Basilica, recognizing it as "a treasure of the universal church". It belongs in a real sense to the whole world and not just to our locality. The ornamental insignia of a basilica are the half open umbrella (canopeum), and the bell in the key shaped frame (tintinnabulum) which led papal processions. These insignia are displayed in the rear of the church.
By 1933, some 40 blocks of the downtown riverfront surrounding the Old cathedral had fallen into decay. Luther Ely Smith, a St. Louisan, spelled out a plan for developing a memorial on the riverfront to Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann who had been married in the Old Cathedral. On December 15, 1933, Mayor Dickmann called a meeting of St. Louis civic leaders in the Jefferson Hotel. From this meeting was born the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial which surrounds the Old Cathedral. President Roosevelt authorized the Interior Department to acquire the tract of the original city settlement between Poplar Street and the Eads bridge west to Third Street. The only exception, the only building to be saved, the only land not to be claimed for the park, was the site of the church, and the historic Old Cathedral building standing where it has always stood. The memorial commemorates Thomas Jefferson, under whose presidency Louisiana was purchased, and the pioneers who broke open the American west. The Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, "The Old Cathedral" stands in the center of the memorial as a reminder of the expansion of faith throughout the west.
~ from Basilica of St. Louis, King website (
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