The St. Joseph's Cathedral ( ar, كاتدرائية القديس يوسف) or Latin Cathedral of St. Joseph is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

located on al-Jumhuriya Street in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, the capital of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. Because it is in the jurisdiction of the Latin Church, it is sometimes called the Latin Cathedral of St. Joseph in order to distinguish it from the Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph dedicated to the same saint but belonging to the

Chaldean Catholic Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

(also in communion with the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

). St. Joseph's functions as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Baghdad (''Bagdathensis Latinorum'') which was established in 1643 as a diocese and elevated to its present status in 1848. The Cathedral's churchyard also contains the tomb of Lebanese Christian priest and linguist

Anastas al-Karmali Al-Ab Anastas Mari Al-Karmali ( ar, الأب أنستاس الكرملي), Anastas the Carmelite, or Père Anastase-Marie de Saint-Élie (5 August 1866 – January 7, 1947), a Lebanese Christian priest and linguist who made important contributi ...

History

The Cathedral was built at the end of the 19th century on the land that had been a school of the same name since 1737. It was completed in Baghdad in 1871 after five years of work and was built for the Latin community in the city. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the Cathedral was turned into a hospital by the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

but after Ottoman defeat, the cathedral returned to a place of worship and was renovated in 1923. During World War II, Polish troops stationed in Baghdad in 1942 and 1943 celebrated

Divine Liturgy Divine Liturgy ( grc-gre, Θεία Λειτουργία, Theia Leitourgia) or Holy Liturgy is the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine Rite, developed from the Antiochene Rite of Christian liturgy which is that of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of C ...

in the cathedral along with the bishops. One of these bishops, Bishop Joseph Gaolina, has a bronze statue dedicated to him inside the cathedral. In recent years, the cathedral is suffering from neglect due to government oversight and is in dire need of restoration. The paint of the exterior and dome are worn out and require extensive restoration, and the exterior joints must be treated to ensure the roof is waterproof. It has also been suffering from inconvenience due to the Shorja market it is surrounded by and the exodus of Christians from the areas that surround the Church to more modern neighborhoods in the city. Despite this, the cathedral remains one of the most important landmarks for Christians living in the old Christian quarter of Baghdad.

Architecture

The cathedral is built in Iraqi architecture and uses traditional bricks that were used in Iraq to build structures, including both mosques and churches. The walls of the cathedral are 4 meters thick in order to keep warmth during winter and keep cool in the summer and its level of the foundations are slightly below street level due to subsidence of the ground. All the doors and windows are of the building are embowed, representing an Abbasid-inspired architecture. The building is topped with a 32 meters hemispherical dome with a circular cylinder and windows at the level of the church wing and at the top is a cross. The churchyard contains a graveyard that includes the tombs of the Carmelite fathers, the founders of the Church, as well as graves of monks and

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

. The tomb of Anastas al-Karmali is also located here.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Joseph's Cathedral, Church Catholic cathedrals in Iraq Roman Catholic cathedrals in Asia Roman Catholic churches in Iraq Churches in Baghdad Roman Catholic churches completed in 1965 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings Buildings and structures in Baghdad

History

Architecture

See also

References