The Cathedral of the Assumption is a Catholic cathedral in Louisville, Kentucky, and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Louisville. It is the seat of Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, and Martin A. Linebach, vicar general for the archdiocese, serves as rector.
History
St. Louis Church
In 1811, a small group of Catholics in Louisville formed Saint Louis Church at 10th and Main Streets. Previously, Fr Stephen Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States, called the "circuit rider priest," had served the Louisville area, along with much of the American frontier.
In September 1821, Father Philip Hosten became the first residential pastor of Saint Louis Church. Fr. Hosten died one year later during an outbreak of yellow fever in the city. By 1830, a larger Saint Louis Church was built five blocks south of the Ohio River on Fifth Street. The Cathedral of the Assumption stands on that site to this day.
From Bardstown to Louisville
The Diocese of Bardstown, the first inland diocese in the United States, was established in 1808, with Benedict Joseph Flaget as the first Bishop of Bardstown. The diocese included most of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
In 1841, the diocese was moved from Bardstown to Louisville, and Saint Louis Church became Saint Louis Cathedral. Bishop Flaget, now the Bishop of Louisville, decided in 1849 that a new cathedral should be built. However, Bishop Flaget died on February 11, 1850, a few months after the laying of the cornerstone for the new church building. His remains rest today in a chapel in the cathedral undercroft.
The project begun by Bishop Flaget was completed by Bishop Martin John Spalding, the second Bishop of Louisville. On October 3, 1852, the new cathedral was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Cathedral of the Assumption. The new cathedral was almost an identical but larger replica of its predecessor, St. Louis Church. The new cathedral was built around St. Louis Church which, when the cathedral was completed, was disassembled and carried piece by piece out the front doors.
The Diocese of Louisville was elevated in 1937 to become the Archdiocese of Louisville and the metropolitan province for all the dioceses in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Bloody Monday
The newly built Cathedral of the Assumption was nearly destroyed soon after its building due to anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant bigotry in the city of Louisville. On Monday, August 6, 1856, George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, placed an article of his own opinion in the paper that speculated the possibility of takeover by immigrants: German and Irish. This also included accusations of vote tampering. Fearing for their safety, the "Know Nothing Party" of Nativists bombarded and ambushed local immigrant workers with ammunition, in total killing 22 German and Irish immigrants across the city. Also, the cathedral and the newly built St. Martin of Tours (completed in 1854) were believed to house weaponry in their basements. They were threatened to be burned, but the mayor of the city at the time, John Barbee, himself a "Know-Nothing," inspected the churches and cleared them of such accusations.
Renovation and revitalization
With the 1982 arrival of Thomas C. Kelly, the third Archbishop of Louisville, the Cathedral of the Assumption began anew as an archdiocesan center, under the pastoral direction of Archbishop and Rev. J. Ronald Knott, pastor from 1983 to 1997.
In 1985, the establishment of the Cathedral Heritage Foundation (now known as the Center for Interfaith Relations) began a push for renovation of existing facilities, expansion of the cathedral complex, and revitalization of the cathedral's mission to the broader community as a spiritual center in Louisville. Together, the cathedral parish and the Cathedral Heritage Foundation brought the cathedral into the new millennium.
Renovation began in 1988 with the removal of sections of the cathedral spire, along with the finial and cross. The year 1989 saw a comprehensive restoration plan adopted. In June 1991, after one hundred years of disuse, the completely restored cathedral undercroft was reopened. Finally, in February 1993, renovation on the main cathedral space began and continued for nearly two years. The grand reopening of the cathedral was celebrated in 1994, with a completely renovated cathedral space.
In May 1994, Archbishop Kelly moved into the cathedral rectory, making him the first bishop to live in Downtown Louisville in one hundred twenty years. In June 1998, the cathedral spire and bell tower were completely renovated.