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Cathedral of Saint Paul (Minnesota)
Encyclopedia
The Cathedral of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic
cathedral
in the city
of St. Paul
, Minnesota
. It is the Co-Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, along with the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. One of the most distinctive cathedrals in the United States
, it sits on Cathedral Hill overlooking downtown St. Paul and features a distinctive copper
-clad dome
. 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
and the Vatican
.
John Ireland
in 1904. At Ireland's direction, the archdiocese commissioned well-known French
Beaux-Arts architect
Emmanuel Louis Masqueray
, who was also the chief architect
of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis
, Missouri
, and construction began in 1906. Masqueray's open design allows visitors unobstructed views of the altar and pulpit
. Masqueray died in 1917, having completed only a few designs for the interior, which has been filled by other designers in the subsequent decades.
The design was inspired by French Renaissance architecture
. The dome of the cathedral is 76 feet (23.2 m) in diameter and 186 feet (56.7 m) high. Warm-colored paint and gold leaf
were added during a major renovation of the dome in the 1950s. The exterior walls of the cathedral are Rockville granite
from St. Cloud, Minnesota
(from the Clark quarry
). The interior walls are American Travertine
from Mankato, Minnesota
. The interior columns are made of several types of marble
.
The interior is illuminated by twenty-four stained glass
windows featuring angel
ic choirs. There is also a rose window
in the transept
designed by Charles Connick
. Electric lighting was installed in 1940.
The cathedral has statues of the four evangelist
s in the four corners of its main pier. The life of Saint Paul
is honored by a bronze
baldachin
, as well as massive bronze Te Deum
and Magnificat
grilles. The cathedral also has six chapels dedicated to the patron saint
s of the Europe
an ethnic groups that settled the area around the city: St. Anthony
for the Italians, St. John the Baptist for the French Canadian
s, St. Patrick for the Irish, St. Boniface for the Germans, Saints Cyril
and Methodius for the Slavs; and St. Therese of Lisieux for the missionaries
.
There are also chapels dedicated to the Sacred Heart
, to Mary, the mother of Jesus and to St. Joseph, her husband, as well as to Saint Peter
.
In 1987 the Cathedral acquired five bronze bell
s cast in France. The copper dome was renovated in 2002.
The Cathedral is normally open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1974. On March 25, 2009, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared the Cathedral of Saint Paul to be a National Shrine - the first in Minnesota and the only one in North America dedicated to the Apostle Paul. The Cathedral is now also known as the National Shrine of the Apostle Paul.
The Cathedral was visited by Eugenio Pacelli two years before his election to the Papacy in 1939.
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
in the city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
of St. Paul
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. It is the Co-Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, along with the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. One of the most distinctive cathedrals in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it sits on Cathedral Hill overlooking downtown St. Paul and features a distinctive copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
-clad dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
. 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
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...
and the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
.
History
The building of the current cathedral was instigated by ArchbishopArchbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
John Ireland
John Ireland (archbishop)
John Ireland was the third bishop and first archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota . He became both a religious as well as civic leader in Saint Paul during the turn of the century...
in 1904. At Ireland's direction, the archdiocese commissioned well-known French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Beaux-Arts architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Emmanuel Louis Masqueray
Emmanuel Louis Masqueray
Emmanuel Louis Masqueray was a Franco-American preeminent figure in the history of American architecture, both as a gifted designer of landmark buildings and as an influential teacher of the profession of architecture.-Biography:...
, who was also the chief architect
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, and construction began in 1906. Masqueray's open design allows visitors unobstructed views of the altar and pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
. Masqueray died in 1917, having completed only a few designs for the interior, which has been filled by other designers in the subsequent decades.
The design was inspired by French Renaissance architecture
French Renaissance architecture
French Renaissance architecture is the style of architecture which was imported to France from Italy during the early 16th century and developed in the light of local architectural traditions....
. The dome of the cathedral is 76 feet (23.2 m) in diameter and 186 feet (56.7 m) high. Warm-colored paint and gold leaf
Gold leaf
right|thumb|250px|[[Burnishing]] gold leaf with an [[agate]] stone tool, during the water gilding processGold leaf is gold that has been hammered into extremely thin sheets and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades...
were added during a major renovation of the dome in the 1950s. The exterior walls of the cathedral are Rockville granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
from St. Cloud, Minnesota
St. Cloud, Minnesota
St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 65,842 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stearns County...
(from the Clark quarry
Clark and McCormack Quarry and House
The Clark Quarry and House, located at Minnesota Highway 23 at Pine Street in Rockville in the U.S. state of Minnesota is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Georgian Revival home was built by a Scottish immigrant, John Clark using pink granite from the adjacent quarry...
). The interior walls are American Travertine
Travertine
Travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs, especially hot springs. Travertine often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, and cream-colored varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot...
from Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 39,309 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth largest city in Minnesota outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The county seat of Blue Earth County, it is located...
. The interior columns are made of several types of marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
.
The interior is illuminated by twenty-four stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows featuring angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
ic choirs. There is also a rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
in the transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
designed by Charles Connick
Charles Connick
Charles Jay Connick was a prominent American painter, muralist, and designer best known for his work in stained glass in the Gothic Revival style. Born in Springboro, Pennsylvania, Connick eventually settled in the Boston area where he opened his studio in 1913...
. Electric lighting was installed in 1940.
The cathedral has statues of the four evangelist
Four Evangelists
In Christian tradition the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament that bear the following titles:*Gospel according to Matthew*Gospel according to Mark...
s in the four corners of its main pier. The life of Saint Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
is honored by a bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
baldachin
Baldachin
A baldachin, or baldaquin , is a canopy of state over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in cathedrals, where such a structure is more correctly called a ciborium when it is...
, as well as massive bronze Te Deum
Te Deum
The Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus, rendered literally as "Thee, O God, we praise"....
and Magnificat
Magnificat
The Magnificat — also known as the Song of Mary or the Canticle of Mary — is a canticle frequently sung liturgically in Christian church services. It is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn...
grilles. The cathedral also has six chapels dedicated to the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
s of the Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an ethnic groups that settled the area around the city: St. Anthony
Anthony of Padua
Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised...
for the Italians, St. John the Baptist for the French Canadian
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
s, St. Patrick for the Irish, St. Boniface for the Germans, Saints Cyril
Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they...
and Methodius for the Slavs; and St. Therese of Lisieux for the missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
.
There are also chapels dedicated to the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....
, to Mary, the mother of Jesus and to St. Joseph, her husband, as well as to Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
.
In 1987 the Cathedral acquired five bronze bell
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
s cast in France. The copper dome was renovated in 2002.
The Cathedral is normally open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1974. On March 25, 2009, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared the Cathedral of Saint Paul to be a National Shrine - the first in Minnesota and the only one in North America dedicated to the Apostle Paul. The Cathedral is now also known as the National Shrine of the Apostle Paul.
The Cathedral was visited by Eugenio Pacelli two years before his election to the Papacy in 1939.
Other sources
- Ernster, Barb. "Cathedral is Catechism in Stone and Glass: National Shrine Honors Paul the Apostle". National Catholic RegisterNational Catholic RegisterNot to be confused with the National Catholic Reporter or the Catholic RegisterThe National Catholic Register is the oldest national Catholic newspaper in the United States. It was founded on 8 November 1927 by Msgr. Matthew J...
, June 20, 2010, p. B5.