The Cathedral of Saint Paul — informally known as Saint Paul's Cathedral — is the
mother church
Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metro ...
of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama
The Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church that encompasses the northern 39 counties of the U.S. state of Alabama. It was erected on December 9, 1969, when it was split from wh ...
in
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
. Designed by Chicago architect
Adolphus Druiding, the Victorian Gothic-style brick building was completed as a parish church in 1893. The parish it serves was established in 1872 and the cornerstone bears both dates. It was elevated to cathedral status with the creation of the Diocese of Birmingham in 1969.
During its days as a parish, its most famous pastor was
Father James Coyle. There is the aspiration of relocating his remains from
Elmwood Cemetery to the cathedral as the cause for his beatification as a martyr advances.
The contractor that had to be talked into moving to Birmingham to build the project was Lawrence Scully. Just prior to its completion, Lawrence Scully was killed when his horse-drawn carriage was spooked by a passing motor vehicle that honked its horn. The horse reared and flipped the carriage over, killing Lawrence Scully. Lawrence Scully also built one of Birmingham's first public schools, the Powell School.
Two buildings, the church and associated school, were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as St. Paul's Catholic Church in 1982.
[
The stained-glass windows in the cathedral's aisles are the work of G. C. Riordan & Company of Cincinnati. They were in place when the church was first used. The large window of ]St. Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
over the entrance was installed in 1972, replacing an older window that had been damaged in a storm.
In 2022, the cathedral dedicated a new pipe organ in the choir gallery in front of the St. Paul window. While the previous organ complete obscured the window, the top of the window is visible over the new organ, the Anna Catharine Grace Memorial Pipe Organ, Noak Organ Co., opus 164.
Pastors and Rectors of St. Paul's
1. Father John J. Browne, 1880-1886
2. Father Patrick A. O‘Reilly, 1888-1904
3. Father James E. Coyle, 1904-1921
4. Father William A. Kerrigan, 1922-1935
5. Father Eugene L. Sands, 1936-1949
6. Father Francis J. Foley, 1951-1953
7. Father Francis J. McCormack, 1953-1967
8. Father George W. Keyes, 1967-1971
9. Father John M. Horgan, 1971-1979
10. Father J. Peter Sheehan, 1979-1991
11. Father Patrick P. Cullen, 1991-2001
12. Father Richard Donohoe, 2001-2009
13. Father Kevin Bazzel, 2009-2016
14. Father Bryan Jerabek, 2016-present
See also
*List of Catholic cathedrals in the United States
The following is a list of the Catholic cathedrals in the United States. The Catholic Church in the United States comprises ecclesiastical territories called dioceses led by prelate bishops. Each bishop is assigned to a cathedral from which he ...
*List of cathedrals in the United States
This is a list of cathedrals in the United States, including both actual cathedrals (seats of bishops in episcopal Christian groups, such as Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy and the Armenian Apostolic Church) and a few prominent church ...
* St Paul's Church, Birmingham (UK)
References
External links
Official Cathedral Site
Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham Official Site
The Cathedral of Saint Paul Webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul Birmingham
Churches in Birmingham, Alabama
Gothic Revival church buildings in Alabama
National Register of Historic Places in Birmingham, Alabama
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama
Roman Catholic cathedrals in Alabama
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1893
Roman Catholic churches in Alabama
Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama
Towers in Alabama
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States