SAINT PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese in the State of Minnesota, U.S.A. In 1849 the territories of northern Iowa became the territories of Minnesota. A similar ecclesiastical division took place after the Seventh Provincial Council of Baltimore (May 5-13, 1849), when the Holy See was asked to erect a diocese in the village of St. Paul.

Today the diocese covers an area of 16,050 sq. mi. (compared with 166,000 in 1850), with a total population of 1,587,568 inhabitants, of whom 345,700 are Catholics. There are 565 priests (82 religious from 8 different congregations), 290 parishes, 129 chapels, 21 missions, 33 congregations of women, 2 seminaries, 2 colleges, 4 orphanages and asylums, 6 hospitals. The ecclesiastical province of St. Paul of Minnesota is composed of the following dioceses: Bismarck, N. Dak.; Crookston, Minnesota; Duluth, Minn.; Fargo, N. Dak.; Rapid City, S. Dak.; St. Cloud, Minn.; Sioux Falls, S. Dak.; Winona, Minn.

The diocese resulted from the dismemberment of Dubuque and Milwaukee that took place on July 19, 1850. St. Paul was dismembered on Feb. 12, 1875, to form the apostolic vicariate of northern Minnesota, on Aug. 12, 1879, for the erection of the apostolic vicariate of Dakota, and on Oct. 3, 1889, for the formation of the diocese of Winona. St. Paul was then a suffragan of St. Louis and later became a suffragan of Milwaukee until May 4, 1888, the date of its elevation to an archdiocese. The province of St. Paul had only the apostolic vicariate of northern Minnesota as a suffragan, but the following year the apostolic vicariate of Minnesota was suppressed and the new dioceses of St. Cloud, Duluth, Winona, and Jamestown (today Fargo, since 1807) were erected.

The city of St. Paul was founded around 1830. Father Lucien Galtier built a chapel there, opened on Nov. 11, 1841, under the patronage of St. Paul. The first bishop of St. Paul was Msgr. Joseph Cretin, vicar general of Dubuque, appointed on July 23, 1850. At the time of his death (1857) the diocese counted 50,000 Catholics, 29 churches, 35 stations, and 20 priests.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: J. G. Shea, Hist. of the Cath. Church in the U. S., IV, New York 1892, pp. 138-62, 646-53; F. J. Schaefer, Saint Paul, in Cath. Enc., XIII, pp. 366-69; The Official Cath. directory 1950, New York 1950, pp. 190-96; Th. Roemer, The Cath. Church in the U. S., St. Louis-London 1950, pp. 226, 283 ff.

Gastone Carrière

@incollection{ec10_san_paolo_di_minnesota_saint_p, author = {Carrière, Gastone}, title = {San Paolo di Minnesota (Saint Paul M.), arcidiocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1803--1804}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/san-paolo-di-minnesota-saint-paul-m-arcidiocesi-di} }

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Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Archdiocese of

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