The Cathedral of the Incarnation, located at 2015 West End Avenue in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

, is the cathedral seat of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville The Diocese of Nashville ( la, Dioecesis Nashvillensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church that encompasses 38 counties spread over 16,302 square miles of Middle Tennessee. The Catholic population of the d ...

. It is named after the mystery of the Incarnation, which celebrates the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by which God became man according to Christian teaching. There have been three cathedral churches in Nashville. The first was the Holy Rosary Cathedral which is now demolished and occupied the site of what is now the

Tennessee State Capitol The Tennessee State Capitol, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It serves as the home of both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly–the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tenn ...

. The second was Saint Mary's Cathedral, which still stands on the corner of Fifth and Church Streets. Construction of the Cathedral of the Incarnation began in 1910 under the direction of Bishop

Thomas Sebastian Byrne Thomas Sebastian Byrne (July 28, 1841 – September 4, 1923) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Nashville in Tennessee from 1894 until his death in 1923. Biography Early life Thomas Byrne ...

. It was completed and dedicated July 26, 1914. The church has undergone three major renovations, one in 1937, another in 1987, and the most recent which began in March 2019. The 1987 renovation was supervised by Father

Richard S. Vosko Richard S. Vosko (born 1943) is an American Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Albany and liturgical design consultant who has overseen the redesign and renovation of numerous churches and cathedrals in the United States. Vosko has worked th ...

, a liturgical design consultant and priest of the Diocese of Albany who has overseen the redesign and renovation of numerous churches and cathedrals around the country. The 2019 renovation was begun by Father Edward Steiner and is being completed by Father Eric Fowlkes. The church's architecture is modeled after the traditional Roman

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

, specifically the basilica

San Martino ai Monti San Martino ai Monti, officially known as Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti ("Saints Sylvester & Martin in the Mountains"), is a minor basilica in Rome, Italy, in the Rione Monti neighbourhood. It is located near the edge of the Parco del Colle ...

in Rome. The primary architect was

Fred Asmus Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Rodr ...

Sources

External links

Official Cathedral SiteRoman Catholic Diocese of Nashville Official Site
1907 establishments in Tennessee Cathedral of the Incarnation Christian organizations established in 1907

Incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...

Roman Catholic churches completed in 1914 Roman Catholic churches in Tennessee Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States {{US-RC-cathedral-stub

See also

Sources

External links