St. Mary Basilica, formerly St. Mary's Cathedral, located in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...

, United States, is a parish church in the Diocese of Jackson and

Minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

of the

Catholic Church 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 ...

. In 1979 it was listed under its former name as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the

Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District is a historic district in Natchez, Mississippi that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Important sites within the district include: *the location of Andrew Marschalk's pr ...

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 ...

. The Basilica was dedicated to Mary, under the title

Our Lady of Sorrows Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

, on December 25, 1843.

History

The Diocese of Natchez (now the Diocese of Jackson) was erected in 1837, and in 1842 construction began on a new

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 ...

. It was dedicated on December 25, 1843, but the diocese had to wait until 1882 for the building to be completed, forty years after construction commenced. The building was consecrated on September 19, 1886, and remained the cathedral of the diocese until 1977. It was designated a minor basilica on September 8, 1998, and dedicated as such on September 25, 1999. In 2007 the body of Bishop

John J. Chanche John Mary Joseph Benedict Chanche, Society of Saint-Sulpice, S.S., (October 4, 1795 – July 22, 1852) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson, Diocese of Natchez in M ...

, S.S. the first Catholic bishop of Mississippi, was exhumed from a Baltimore, Maryland catholic cemetery and returned to Natchez to be reinterred in St. Mary Basilica's church yard.

Architecture

Our Lady of Sorrows was designed by Baltimore architect

Robert Cary Long Jr. Robert Cary Long Jr. (1810–1849) was the son of a late 18th Century - early 19th Century famous architect Robert Cary Long Sr. of Baltimore, Maryland and was himself a well-known 19th Century architect. Like his father, Cary was based in Baltim ...

; the supervising architect was

James Hardie James Hardie Industries plc is a global building materials company and the largest global manufacturer of fibre cement products. Headquartered in Ireland, it is a dual-listed company, being listed on the Australian and New York Stock Exchanges. ...

. It is similar to Long's contemporary Church of St. Alphonsus in Baltimore. The brick structure is two stories in height, and it was constructed on a partially raised basement. It features a semi-circular apsidal end, ornamental

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s, and

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es. The central square tower that is capped with a spire is embedded into the structure, and it has a recessed Gothic-arched entrance. The tower is topped with pinnacles. Original organ is H. Pilcher and Sons dating to 1882. The Basilica underwent some restoration after sustaining damage in a tornado."St. Mary Basilica", Conrad Schmitt Studios
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References

External links

St. Mary Basilica website

St. Mary Basilica Archives website

Natchez of the Mighty Mississippi River
Roman Catholic cathedrals in Mississippi Mary, Natchez Mary, Natchez Roman Catholic churches completed in 1843 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States 1843 establishments in Mississippi Historic district contributing properties in Mississippi Churches in Natchez, Mississippi Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson {{Mississippi-church-stub

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links