Who's got the nation's oldest Catholic cathedral?

[thatcrazycajun]

National Public Radio reports here on the reopening of the Baltimore Basilica in Maryland, calling it "the nation's first cathedral." While not wishing to take anything away from Balmer citizens' rightful pride at the restoration of an architectural and historic jewel, I would argue that whether it deserves to be called first depends rather largely on how you define "cathedral."

In my home city of New Orleans, there is a cathedral older by almost a century...except that it technically wasn't a cathedral when it was first built, nor was it the only ecclesiastical edifice on the site (two prior versions were both burned down, the latter in the great fire that turned the name "French Quarter" into a misnomer by replacing the original French architecture with the preferred styles of the colony's by-then-Spanish rulers). Read Wikipedia's entry on St. Louis Cathedral here, and then decide for yourself: Which is really the nation's first cathedral?

Comments

[zsero.livejournal.com]

The Baltimore Basilica is clearly not the nation's oldest cathedral, since it didn't even start being built until 13 years after St Louis was given that status, and wasn't completed until 15 years later. But the Wikipedia entry is more accurate, calling it "the first Roman Catholic Cathedral built in the United States". The catch is that St Louis wasn't built in the USA, it was built in New France.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Huh. So it should actually say "the first Roman Catholic cathedral built in *what is now* the United States." I hadn't even thought of it that way. Thanks for doing the further digging to clear that up.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

The Baltimore Basilica is "the first Roman Catholic cathedral *built* in the United States"; it was in the USA when it was built. St Louis is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral *in* the USA, and it was already in the USA when the Baltimore Basilica was built, but it wasn't built in the USA. And that is a significant point, not a mere technicality. The Baltimore Basilica represents a milestone in the history how the Roman Church gained acceptance in the USA, because it was the first time in USA history that people set out to build a cathedral. St Louis was inherited, it came with Louisiana and its Papist population, so it doesn't show that much about USAn toleration, beyond the fact that it wasn't immediately torn down.