St. Peter's Pro-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 located in

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, United States. It is the oldest Catholic church in the city. From the erecting of the Diocese of Richmond in 1850 until the completion of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in 1906, St. Peter's Church served as the

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 ...

and seat of the diocese. Originally, the church was predominantly

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. The church continued to serve a congregation of approximately 300 as of 2011. After the Civil War, St. Peter's basement hosted the city's "colored Catholics." The 13-member congregation included Emily Mitchell (born into slavery in 1824, brought from

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and later serving Bishop

James Gibbons James Cardinal Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina from 1868 to 1872, Bishop of Richmond from 1872 to 1877, and as Archbishop of Baltimore from 1877 unti ...

), Julia Grandison (baptised in

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and brought to Richmond at age 9), Moses Marx (who began driving Bishop John Keane's buggy at age 12), Liza Marx (who learned to read and reminded the judge reading her mistress' will that he forgot the lines bequeathing money to Elizabeth Thompson and her next child of issue), and Julia Flippen as well as her children. When the congregation had increased to about 50, including children, Bishop Keane signed a deed for what became St. Jos Church on

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, also inviting the Josephites for help in furthering the Black apostolate. In 2020 the parish was designated a

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish Church (building), church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefect ...

as part of the Diocese of Richmond bicentennial celebration.

Gallery

Image:Saint Peter's Church Richmond, Virginia.jpg, A photograph of the church from a 1914 publication

References

19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Roman Catholic churches completed in 1834 Roman Catholic churches in Richmond, Virginia Former cathedrals in the United States Irish-American culture in Virginia Irish-American history National Register of Historic Places in Richmond, Virginia Neoclassical architecture in Virginia Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Roman Catholic cathedrals in Virginia Neoclassical church buildings in the United States Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart {{Virginia-RC-church-stub

Gallery

See also

References