The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, colloquially known as Saint Mary's Cathedral, is a historic church located in
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state.
Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...
. It is the
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 denominatio ...
and a
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
in the
Diocese of Fall River
The Diocese of Fall River ( la, Dioecesis Riverormensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church spanning Barnstable County, Bristol County, Dukes County, Nantucket County, and the towns of Marion, Mattapoise ...
. Built from 1852 to 1856, the cathedral and adjacent
rectory were added to 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 ...
in 1983, as St. Mary's Cathedral and Rectory. It is the oldest extant church building in the city of Fall River, and was one of the city's first
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 ...
parishes. The cathedral is dedicated to
Mary, mother of Jesus
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
under the title of
Our Lady of the Assumption.
History
![Saint Mary Fall river](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Saint_Mary_Fall_river.jpg)
There were not enough Catholics in Fall River in the early 19th century to form a parish, so they were visited occasionally by a visiting priest.
Property was finally acquired in 1835 from Peter McLarrin for $659. The parish of St. John the Baptist was established in 1838 and a small frame church building was constructed. Large numbers of Irish immigrants came to Fall River in the 1840s to work in the mills and they soon overwhelmed the small church.
Bishop
John Fitzpatrick of the
Diocese of Boston, which covered all of the State of
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
at the time, laid the cornerstone for the present church on August 8, 1852, at the site of St. John the Baptist Church. The old church remained in place and continued in use while the new church was built around it.
[ When it was time to put on the roof, the old church was dismantled and rebuilt in a near-by location. Parishioners helped in the construction of their new church. Bishop Fitzpatrick returned to dedicate the new St. Mary's Church on December 16, 1855. Finishing details were not completed until December of the following year, and the steeple was unfinished until 1858.] In 1872, St. Mary's became a parish in the newly created Diocese of Providence
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence ( la, Dioecesis Providentiensis) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. The diocese was erected by Pope Pius IX on February 17, 1872 and originally comprised the entire state of Rhode ...
. In 1901, Bishop Matthew Harkins of Providence consecrated the sanctuary, and in 1904 Pope Pius X named it the cathedral church of the newly founded Diocese of Fall River, its seat first held by Bishop William Stang.
Two chapels flank the cathedral. The Lady Chapel was completed in 1869. The Blessed Sacrament
The Blessed Sacrament, also Most Blessed Sacrament, is a devotional name to refer to the body and blood of Christ in the form of consecrated sacramental bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist. The term is used in the Latin Church of the ...
is reserved there and it has the daily Mass. The Bishop’s Chapel was completed in 1935. It is dedicated to Saints John Fisher
John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535) was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal, and theologian. Fisher was also an academic and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI.
Fisher was executed by o ...
and Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...
. Four bishops of Fall River are buried in the chapel's crypt.[ The cathedral has been renovated five times: 1890-1891, 1912-1913, 1951, 1978–79, and 2000.][
The rectory and diocesan offices are attached to the rear of the cathedral by a ]colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...
. The original rectory was a Stick style residence. It was replaced in 1927 by the current rectory.
The cathedral is one of several grand Catholic churches built in the city during its heyday as an industrial center, including St. Anne Shrine, Good Shepherd Church (formerly Saint Patrick's), Sacred Heart Church, Espirito Santo, and Saint Joseph's Church, as well as several that have since been lost, including St. Matthieu's in the North End (taken by eminent domain in the 1960s) and Notre Dame de Lourdes in the Flint, which was destroyed in one of the city's most famous conflagrations on May 11, 1982.
Architecture
St. Mary's Cathedral was designed by prominent Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
church architect Patrick Keely
Patrick Charles Keely (August 9, 1816 — August 11, 1896) was an Irish-American architect based in Brooklyn, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island. He was a prolific designer of nearly 600 churches and hundreds of other institutional buildin ...
in an “Early English” mode of the Gothic Revival style. He later designed St. Joseph (1880) and St. Patrick (1881-1889) churches in Fall River. The cathedral and the entire steeple are stonework composed of native granite. The nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
s are covered by a shingled roof. The building measures and the spire rises to a height of . The main entrance is set in a shallow gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d frontispiece. Above it on the main facade is a rose window in the main gable.
The interior includes intricate woodwork, with some gilding above the sanctuary. The structure is divided into three naves by granite columns. The central nave rises above the side naves that flank it forming a clerestory that is lined with windows. It is capped by a hammer-beam
A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "...the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams pr ...
ceiling that rises above the floor.[ The oldest of the stained glass windows are located in the nave. They were created in Germany and installed in 1891. The ]chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
widows were created in Brooklyn and installed in 1915. The Lancet windows
A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet ...
in the rear gallery were created in Boston and installed in 1952.
The rectory was designed by the Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
architectural firm of Maginnis & Walsh
Maginnis & Walsh was an architecture firm started by Charles Donagh Maginnis and Timothy Walsh in 1905. It was known for its innovative design of churches in Boston in the first half of the twentieth century.
Partners
Maginnis was born January ...
. Like the cathedral, it was designed in the Gothic Revival style and its exterior is clad in granite.
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 polity, episcopal Christian groups, such as Catholic Church, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy and ...
*
References
External links
Official Cathedral Site
Diocese of Fall River Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Marys Cathedral and Rectory, Fall River, Massachusetts
Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River
Mary Fall River Cathedral and Rectory
Patrick Keely buildings
Gothic Revival church buildings in Massachusetts
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Roman Catholic churches in Fall River, Massachusetts
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1855
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States
Stone churches in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Fall River, Massachusetts