MARQUETTE, Diocese of. – A city and diocese in the State of Michigan in the United States. It comprises the northern peninsula of the State of Michigan, with an area of 16,281 square miles and 323,544 inhabitants, of whom 91,034 are Catholics. It has 93 parishes, 40 chapels, 40 missions and 21 stations; 146 diocesan priests and 25 religious priests; a seminary; 11 male and 11 female religious communities; 6 diocesan and parochial high schools and 24 parochial schools; in 1949 there were 338 conversions.
The first priests to penetrate the Michigan peninsula were the Jesuits Raymbault and Jogues, who planted the cross on the banks of the St. Marys River in 1641; in 1660 Fr. R. Ménard arrived there, and in 1665 Fr. C. Allouez. In 1668 a mission was established there; it continued to flourish. At the 1st National Council in May 1852 it was recommended that an apostolic vicariate be erected in northern Michigan; this was indeed established by Pius IX by a brief of 29 July 1853, separating the territory from Detroit and appointing as first apostolic vicar Mgr. T. Baraga, with the titular see of Amyzon, residing at Sault Ste. Marie, which in 1857 was raised to a diocese. On 23 Oct. 1865 the see was transferred to M. with the title of Sault Ste. Marie and M. Other bishops were Mgr. I. Mrak (1869-78), F. Eis (1899-1922), J. Nussbaum (1922-35), J. C. Plagens (1935-1940), F. J. Magner (1940-47); the present bishop is Mgr. T. L. Noa (1947). Pope Pius XI, with the apostolic constitution Ad aeternam christifidelium salutem of 22 May 1937, withdrew the diocese of M. from the ecclesiastical province of Milwaukee, making it a suffragan of Detroit.
The cathedral is dedicated to St. Peter.