St. Mary Basilica, formerly St. Mary's Cathedral, is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

, and a parish church in the Diocese of Jackson. It was dedicated to the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

under the title

Our Lady of Sorrows Our Lady of Sorrows (), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows (), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are Titles of Mary, names by which Mary, mother of Jesus, is referr ...

on December 25, 1843. 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 dist ...

in the

Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District is a Historic districts in the United States, historic district in Natchez, Mississippi that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. History Architecturally, the district ...

on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. It was named a

minor basilica Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectura ...

in 1998.

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 (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

. 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, 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.; the supervising architect was

James Hardie James Hardie Industries plc is an American-Irish global building materials company and the largest global manufacturer of fibre cement products. Headquartered in Ireland, it is cross-listed on the Australian and New York Stock Exchanges. Its ...

. 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 main ...

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 (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

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-RC-church-stub

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links