LOUISVILLE, Archdiocese of. – Archdiocese and city in the State of Kentucky in the United States of America.
It comprises that part of Kentucky situated west of the counties of Carroll, Owen, Rockcastle, Laurel and Whitley and east of the counties of Breckenridge, Grayson, Edmonson, Warren and Allen, with an area of 10,630 sq. km., 905,078 inhabitants, of whom 132,050 are Catholic. It has 110 parishes, 56 chapels, 3 missions and 4 stations; 158 diocesan priests and 134 religious priests, 14 male religious communities and 80 female, 4 seminaries and religious schools, 6 colleges, 11 diocesan and parochial high schools, 93 parochial schools; in 1949 there were 648 conversions.
The cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
The first Catholic groups transferred to the region of Kentucky at the close of the 18th century, coming from Maryland, were Irish; the first missionary invited was the Irish Franciscan Fr. Whelan; and the first American priest was Rev. Thayer. In 1805 the first Trappists arrived in Kentucky, and the following year the Dominicans, who immediately began construction of a church.
Pope Pius IX, with his apostolic constitution Ex debito of 8 April 1808, erected the episcopal see of Bardstown, and the first bishop was Bp. B. J. Flaget, with jurisdiction over the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and parts of Arkansas, Wisconsin and Iowa. The first diocesan synod was held there on 20 February 1812. On 10 December 1837 Pope Gregory XVI created the diocese of Louisville as a suffragan of Cincinnati, with its see in the city of Louisville, founded on 19 May 1780. Pope Pius XI, with his apostolic constitution Universi catholici orbis of 9 December 1937, detached part of the territory from the diocese of Louisville to create the new diocese of Owensboro; then, with the apostolic constitution Quo christifidelium regimen of the following day, he separated the diocese of Louisville from the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Cincinnati, elevating it to the rank and dignity of a metropolitan see.