St. Joseph Cathedral, Baton Rouge

For nearly 170 years St. Joseph Church (now Cathedral) has stood on the present site as a visible sign of the Catholic faith and as a testimony to the generosity and love of the people who have worshipped here. It is also a sign of God’s faithfulness to His people - from the early settlers and missionaries, who endured all the difficulties of developing a new land, to the many people throughout the years who have given their time and talent to enable it to become the landmark and sign of God’s presence it is today.

Our story begins on December 31, 1721, when the renowned Jesuit priest, Father Pierre F. X. de Charlevoix, an explorer, historian, and scientist who was on his way by river from Québec to New Orleans, spent the night along the way at a settlement know as "le Baton Rouge," marked as it was on the Mississippi River's eastern bluff by a red pole erected by Native Americans. This artifact, a boundary marker, was situated in an area that now is included in the Cathedral parish. The following day being, then as now, a holy day of obligation, he celebrated the Eucharist on an improvised altar with the family he was visiting. He wrote of this in his journal, which provided the first record we have of a Mass in Baton Rouge. The first church, erected in 1789, was a wooden chapel. It was called Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows) and was situated north of the present Cathedral. In 1792, by royal decree, King Carlos IV established the territorial Parish of Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores in Baton Rouge. Its first resident pastor, Father Carlos Burke, a native of Ireland but a priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons in France who had been educated in Salamanca, Spain - and so well able to preach to in all three of Baton Rouge's languages - arrived later that year.

By 1830 the need for a larger church building for the parish was recognized. Built on land acquired from Don Antonio de Gras, one of Baton Rouge's earliest settlers, and Mr. William S. Pike, a noted banker and merchant, it was dedicated on December 19, 1830, and - English having become the dominant language - the parish and its church renamed St. Joseph.

Having been chartered by the Louisiana State legislature in 1820, the Parish continued to experience severe financial difficulties. Yet the Parish, staffed at that time by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), was completely out of debt by 1851. 

In the short span of 20 years, the parish had again outgrown the church building. A third church building, designed in a neo-Gothic style by the famed ecclesiastical architect Father John Cambiaso, S.J., was built between 1853 and 1856 on the site of the previous one. After significant destruction by Union bombardment of the city in 1862, the brick edifice was rebuilt, added-to and remodeled many times over the years, including most notably the addition of the steeple's spire in 1891, the stuccoing of the exterior shortly thereafter, and the installation of the German stained-glass windows between 1917 and 1925. The exquisite Italian mosaic "Stations of the Cross" were added soon afterward.

The oldest church building of the city became the present St. Joseph Cathedral on November 8, 1961, when the Diocese of Baton Rouge was established by Pope St. John XXIII.

The last major improvement, an adaptive restoration, was undertaken in the 1960s shortly after the church was designated a cathedral to serve the newly-established Diocese. The restoration aimed at the “full, active, and fruitful participation of the faithful in divine worship” as called-for by the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy promulgated by the Second Vatican Council in 1963. The planning occupied three years and included experts from all over the world. While much of the work of reconstruction was largely completed by the end of 1967, the finalization of the renovation, with John Desmond as architect and Milo Puiz as art director, took an additional 14 months.

St. Joseph Cathedral has been called the “mother of parishes” in Baton Rouge because all the other Catholic parishes in the metropolitan area were once a part of its territory. It was also known as the “nursery of bishops,” for at least ten of its priests were consecrated as bishops.

St. Joseph Cathedral is the oldest place of worship in Baton Rouge and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It received the National Award from the U.S. Liturgical Conference as an outstanding example of an older church building renovated according to the directives of Vatican Council II. 

Being the seat of the Bishop, it is the site of many important Diocesan events and the administering of Sacraments such as Confirmation and Holy Orders. Located in the shadow of the State Capitol, it is frequently the site of official state functions as well as ecumenical services.