SAINT PAUL OF MINNESOTA (SAINT PAUL M.), ARCHDIOCESE OF
City and archdiocese in the State of Minnesota, U.S.A. In 1849 the northern territories of the West became the Territory of Minnesota. A similar ecclesiastical division took place after the Seventh Provincial Council of Baltimore (May 5–13, 1849), when the Holy See was petitioned to erect a diocese in the village of St. Paul.
Today the diocese covers an area of 16,050 square miles (compared to 166,000 in 1850), with a total population of 1,587,568, of whom 345,700 are Catholic. There are 565 priests (82 religious from 8 different congregations), 290 parishes, 129 chapels, 21 missions, 33 women’s congregations, 2 seminaries, 2 colleges, 4 orphanages and asylums, and 6 hospitals. The ecclesiastical province of St. Paul of Minnesota comprises the following dioceses: Bismarck, N. Dak.; Crookston, Minn.; Duluth, Minn.; Fargo, N. Dak.; Rapid City, S. Dak.; St. Cloud, Minn.; Sioux Falls, S. Dak.; Winona, Minn.
The diocese was formed from territory detached from Dubuque and Milwaukee on July 19, 1850. St. Paul was further divided on February 12, 1875, to create the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Minnesota; on August 12, 1879, for the erection of the Apostolic Vicariate of Dakota; and on October 3, 1889, for the formation of the Diocese of Winona. At that time St. Paul was suffragan to St. Louis and later to Milwaukee until May 4, 1888, when it was elevated to an archdiocese. The province of St. Paul initially had only the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Minnesota as its suffragan, but the following year the Apostolic Vicariate of Minnesota was suppressed, and the new dioceses of St. Cloud, Duluth, Winona, and Jamestown (now Fargo, since 1897) were erected.
The city of St. Paul was founded around 1830. Fr. Lucien Galtier built a chapel there, dedicated on November 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 in 1857, the diocese counted 50,000 Catholics, 29 churches, 35 stations, and 20 priests.