St. Mary's Co-Cathedral 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 ...

co-cathedral A co-cathedral is a cathedral church which shares the function of being a bishop's seat, or ''cathedra'', with another cathedral, often in another city (usually a former see, anchor city of the metropolitan area or the civil capital). Instances o ...

in Armenian Street,

Parrys corner George Town, also known as Muthialpet and Parry's corner, is a neighbourhood in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is near the Fort Saint George. It is an historical area of Madras city from where its expansion began in the 1640s. It ext ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Constructed by

Capuchins Capuchin can refer to: *Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, an order of Roman Catholic friars *Capuchin Poor Clares, an order of Roman Catholic contemplative religious sisters *Capuchin monkey, primates of the genus ''Cebus'' and ''Sapajus'', named af ...

in 1658, it is one of the oldest churches in the former

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. For a long time Cathedral of the diocese it received the title of

when the seat of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore/Madras and Myliapor () is an archdiocese based in the city of Madras (now ''Chennai''), in India. It merged with the ancient diocese of Mylapore which now a part of Chennai. History * 9 Ja ...

was transferred to

San Thome Basilica San Thomas Church, officially known as St Thomas Cathedral Basilica and National Shrine of Saint Thomas, is a minor basilica of the Catholic Church in India, at the Santhome neighbourhood of Chennai, in Tamil Nadu. The present structure dates ...

History

According to records, the church was constructed by a French Capuchin Father Ephrem de Nevers, the First Missionary of Madras who put up "the open pandall chappell" in Armenian Street in 1658.Muthiah, pp 331–332 The structure, however, did not survive for long and had to be reconstructed in 1692. The church was renovated in 1775 and 1785 and promoted to the status of 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 ...

of the Ecclesiastical Province of Madras in 1886. When, in 1952, the ecclesiastical provinces of Madras and Mylapore were merged to form the

with the

as the headquarters, St. Mary's was given the status of a co-cathedral.

History

See also