Saint John the Baptist 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 church, or ...

of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno on Mariposa Street in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

. Erected in 1882, St. John Parish is the oldest parish in Fresno. The current Saint John the Baptist Church was dedicated in 1903 and was designated a cathedral in 1922. As of 2025, the rector of the cathedral is The Very Reverend Fr. Salvador Gonzalez Jr.

History

After the founding of Fresno in 1872, the few Catholics in the new town travelled to

Visalia, California Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-most populous city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 38th most populous in California, and 183 ...

, to attend mass. By 1878, they had started fundraising for a church in Fresno. The property for the new church on M Street was donated by the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete most of the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North Americ ...

donated two lots and their Bishop

Francisco Mora y Borrell Francisco Mora y Borrell (November 25, 1827 – August 3, 1905) was a Spanish-born prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the third Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles, serving from 1878 to 1896. Biography Early life Mora was born on November 25, 18 ...

of the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles. The construction of St. John the Baptist was completed in 1880. It was a brick structure with a

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a relig ...

. Mora dedicated the new church in 1882. Several Sisters of the Holy Cross arrived in Fresno in 1893; one year later, they opened Saint Augustine's Academy. By the beginning of the 20th century, the current St. John the Baptist Church had become too small for the size of the congregation. The parishioner began demolishing the old church in March 1901. The original plans called for building the new St. Andrew on the same property as the old one. However, Reverend McCarthy, the pastor, wanted it located in a different property on Mariposa Street, close to St. Augustine's Academy. Despite the misgivings of some parishioners about the distance to that location, the parish adopted the pastor's plan. The

cornerstone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

for the new church was laid in April 1902 and Coadjutor Archbishop George Montgomery from the Archdiocese of San Francisco dedicated it in June 1903. In 1922, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno from the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego. The parish in 1926 opened the St. John Hall School. At that time, St. John the Baptist Church became St. John the Baptist Cathedral. When the Diocese of Fresno was erected in 1967, St. John the Baptist remained as its cathedral. In April 2019, Jose Hernandez approached the cathedral staff and threatened harm against the priests and bishop. After going outside, he broke several

stained-glass windows Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

and statues, causing $25,000 in damage. He was later arrested. The parish in November 2019 submitted plans to the city for the erected of an iron fence to increase security around the cathedral.

Cathedral

St. John the Baptist Cathedral was designed in a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

- Romanesque style by the architect Thomas Bermingham. The structure has a triple-entry main door with a rose window. There are two square towers topped with

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

References

External links

Cathedral websiteDiocese of Fresno website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's Cathedral, Fresno Christian organizations established in 1882 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1903 John Fresno Culture of Fresno, California Tourist attractions in Fresno, California Churches in Fresno, California 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

History

Cathedral

See also

References

External links