The Cathedral Church of St John the Baptist is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

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 ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of East Anglia and the mother church of the

diocese of East Anglia The Diocese of East Anglia () is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church covering the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Peterborough in eastern England. The diocese makes up part of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage. Statisti ...

. It is within the

Province of Westminster The Catholic dioceses in Great Britain are organised by two separate hierarchies: the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and the Catholic Church in Scotland. Within Great Britain, the Catholic Church in England and Wales has five provinces, s ...

History

The cathedral, located on Unthank Road, was constructed between 1882 and 1910 to designs by George Gilbert Scott, Jr. as a parish church dedicated to

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, on the site of the Norwich City Gaol. The funds for its construction were provided by

Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, (27 December 184711 February 1917), styled Lord Maltravers until 1856 and Earl of Arundel and Surrey between 1856 and 1860, was a British Unionist politician and philanthropist. He served as Postmas ...

, as a gesture of thanksgiving for his first marriage to Lady Flora Abney-Hastings. In 1976, it was consecrated as the cathedral church for the newly erected

Diocese of East Anglia The Diocese of East Anglia () is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church covering the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Peterborough in eastern England. The diocese makes up part of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage. Statisti ...

and the seat of the Bishop of East Anglia. In 2014, for the first time since 1558, a

Pontifical High Mass A Pontifical High Mass, also called Solemn Pontifical Mass, is a Solemn Mass, Solemn or High Mass celebrated by a Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop using certain prescribed ceremonies. Although in modern English the word ''pontifical'' is al ...

was celebrated in this

episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

's cathedral. It is one of two cathedrals in the city of Norwich, the other being the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, begun in the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

style in 1096.

Resources

Just off the south aisle of the cathedral is the Duckett Library. It was named after Canon Richard Duckett who was rector of the church from 1876 to 1910. It was opened on 22 February 2012. People need to become a member of the library to join, and that membership is available to all the cathedral's congregation. It has 3,000 religious publications and is staffed by volunteers. Also, within the cathedral ground is the Narthex. It opened in March 2010 and is the cathedral's visitor centre. It comprises an Education and Interpretation Gallery, a shop, a refectory with outdoor patio, a function hall, licensed bar and community garden.Cathedral Narthex
Retrieved 23 July 2024

Parish

The cathedral's parish also covers Holy Apostles Church, West Earlham, a suburb of Norwich.

References

External links

St John the Baptist Cathedral homepage
(Simon Knott, norfolkchurches.co.uk, accessed 29 October 2012)
Image of the cathedral
(accessed 24 September 2007)
Floor plan of the cathedral
(accessed 23 August 2017)
Narthex opens March, 2010''Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Norwich''
(British Listed Buildings)
Interior view at Google Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norwich, Saint John the Baptist Churches in Norwich Roman Catholic cathedrals in England Roman Catholic churches in Norfolk Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia Grade I listed cathedrals Grade I listed churches in Norfolk Roman Catholic churches completed in 1910 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Norwich, St John the Baptist Cathedral Norwich, St John the Baptist Cathedral Norwich, St John the Baptist Cathedral