The Baltimore Basilica, Baltimore Maryland, United States

The first and oldest cathedral of the United States was built from 1806 to 1821 in Batimore, Maryland.  Officially named the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, this beautiful church was designed by John Carroll, the first Archbishop of Baltimore, his cousin Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the U.S. Capitol Building.

The original plans to build it were initiated by the first Catholic bishop and archbishop in America, the Most Rev. John Carroll (1735-1815). He was a native-born American and a brother of a signer of the Constitution and a cousin of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. At that time when he served as the first ordinary of the first diocese in the nation, his territory encompassed all of the United States. Carroll’s family was well-known in the area; they had been instrumental in the development of the colony of Maryland and the establishment of the city of Baltimore in 1729.

Baltimore was chosen because Maryland was one of the few regions of the 13 colonies that had a substantial Catholic population. Before the United States declared its independence in 1776, Catholics in America were under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England.

In 1784 Pope Pius VI set up the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, encompassing the entirely of the new nation, with Baltimore as its city. In 1789 the same pope erected the Diocese of Baltimore. The following year, Carroll traveled to England where he was consecrated a bishop in a castle by a Benedictine bishop. Upon his return, in the year 1800 the first native-born American citizen was ordained a priest in Baltimore at St. Peter’s Pro-Cathedral, built in 1770.

The Basilica was constructed between 1806 and 1863 to a design of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), America’s first professionally trained architect and Thomas Jefferson’s Architect of the U.S. Capitol. It is considered among the masterpieces of renowned architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. The celebrated gneiss stone structure has been called the most provocative and influential building of its day due to its neoclassical design that includes a temple-front hexastyle portico, Delorme-inspired dome, Latin cross plan, and bold, clean detailing. Indeed, the Basilica was the first American church to break completely with the English-inspired Wren-Gibbs prototype that dominated religious architecture in this country during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Basilica follows the model established by the Roman Pantheon, the most complete temple-fronted structure of ancient antiquity, for the modern use of classical motifs. It is also among the first to be built in a Latin cross plan. Here, Latrobe successfully married Catholic liturgical traditions with the bold rational geometry of the neoclassical style.

The construction of a cathedral in Baltimore was first envisioned by Father John Carroll, whom the Pope appointed Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and its first American Bishop (later elevated to Archbishop). For this reason, Baltimore is considered the birthplace of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States. While Maryland was founded by the Carroll family as a haven for persecuted Catholics, for nearly a century prior to the American Revolution and the adoption of a new constitution, Catholics were not free to worship openly.

Bishop Carroll thus intended the Basilica to celebrate their newly regained freedom. Of the two designs that Latrobe presented, Carroll selected the neoclassical over the Gothic design generally associated with the old ecclesiastic architecture of Europe. Modeled after ancient Roman architecture and Republican ideals, the neoclassical design likely seemed to Carroll the appropriate choice for the first cathedral built within the new nation. When built, it laid just beyond the city grid, on the newly created Cathedral Street, an extension of the existing Liberty Street.

Latrobe is generally recognized as the father of the American architectural profession, although he had trained in his native England. Latrobe arrived to the United States in 1795, and like many before and after, brought with him knowledge of the latest architectural fashions from abroad. Few, however, obtained the success and acclaim that was Latrobe’s. As both an architect and engineer, Latrobe possessed unique knowledge and experience that provided competency in every aspect of building design and execution; he also possessed a creativity that was rarely matched. The Basilica of the Assumption is a perfect example of Latrobe’s application of these ideals. It was begun while Latrobe was at the height of his career and consecrated just after his untimely death in 1820.

The Basilica was blessed and opened for use on May 31, 1821, by the third Archbishop of Baltimore, Ambrose Maréchal. It was consecrated on May 25, 1876, by Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley. Many famous events have occurred within its walls, including the funeral Mass of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll had been the last of the surviving signers. Most of the first American bishops were consecrated here to fill the ever-multiplying dioceses necessitated by the young country’s territorial expansion and the great growth of the American Catholic population. Until recent years, more priests were ordained at the Baltimore Basilica than in any other church in the United States.

The building hosted many of the 19th-century meetings that shaped the Catholic Church in America, including seven Provincial Councils and three Plenary Councils. Among other effects, these led to the founding of The Catholic University of America and efforts to evangelize African and Native Americans to Catholicism. The Third Plenary Council, which was the largest meeting of Catholic bishops held outside Rome since the Council of Trent, commissioned the Baltimore Catechism.

In 1862, while in Maryland during the Civil War’s Peninsula campaign, Union General Joseph Warren Revere (grandson of Paul Revere) visited the Basilica. General Revere was compelled to convert to Catholicism, and he did so despite the on-going war. On October 19, 1862, Reverend H. B. Coskery baptized Revere at the Basilica.  Revere’s Holy Communion took place on October 26.

In 1937, Pope Pius XI raised the cathedral to the rank of Minor Basilica. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, and two years later was declared a National Historic Landmark. In 1993, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the Basilica as a National Shrine.

Many people deemed holy by the Catholic Church are associated with the Basilica, including the Servant of God Mother Mary Lange, Foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first order for Catholic nuns of African-American descent; the Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, who was ordained at the Basilica in 1877 by Archbishop James Gibbons; and St. John Neumann, who is credited with founding America’s Catholic school system.

The Basilica has welcomed millions of visitors, including Pope John Paul II in 1995, Mother Teresa in 1996, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople in 1997. The building has also been visited by at least 20 other saints or potential saints. Archbishop William E. Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore, celebrated the 200th anniversary of the dedication of the Baltimore Basilica on May 31, 2021.

Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, paid a quick visit to the Basilica on October 21, 1936. He arrived in Baltimore by train from Washington, D.C. and made a one-day visit to the area. He was driven in a car to the Basilica where he knelt in prayer for several minutes before the main altar. He then visited the crypt to see the tomb of James Cardinal Gibbons, the second cardinal in American history, before driving north to visit St. Mary’s Seminary and University, the first Catholic seminary in the country. He then drove back to Baltimore’s beautiful Penn Station and departed by train to continue on his way to New York.

The red galero hat of Cardinal Gibbons can still be seen, suspended since his death, a reminder to pray for the response of his soul. There is a story behind this custom that arose in Europe, urging the faithful to pray for reposed members of the College of Cardinals; the tradition being that the cardinals’ hats are suspended in their cathedrals until their souls are eventually released from Purgatory, symbolized by when the hats decay after many years, falling in pieces to the floor.

In 1937 Pope Pius XI gave to the cathedral the rank of Minor Basilica shortly after Cardinal Pacelli’s visit and today it has the additional title of Co-Cathedral. A new cathedral for Baltimore was later built and was completed in 1959, dedicated to Mary Our Queen with a much larger seating capacity for 2,000 faithful on the north end of Baltimore. In 1960 Cardinal Montini (future Pope Paul VI) made a special visit to admire the “modern” architecture, a popular trend in those years.