St. Mary’s Cathedral
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" Thank you, dear Lord, for bearing our sins."
German settlers founded St. Mary's Parish in 1855, creating a church/school in what is now downtown St. Cloud. The church grew in membership and physical size until it was destroyed by a fire in 1920. In 1922, a local Benedictine priest returned from Rome with plans to rebuild the church modeled after a fifth-century Italian basilica. Parishioners worshipped in the basement of the new building until the upper church was completed during the Depression. After a fire destroyed nearby Holy Angels Church, St. Mary's was designated the Cathedral of the St. Cloud Diocese. In 2006, five swastika symbol disks were removed from the sides of the church and replaced with five new disks depicting Pope John Paul II‘s "mysteries of Light."
Worship
At Cathedral of St. Mary, Worship and Sunday Liturgy are the source and summit of our faith experience,
and is at the heart of who we are as a parish community.
Faith Formation
Church of St. Augustine and Cathedral of St. Mary provide opportunities for life long faith development. Our joint faith formation process ensures that Faith Formation programs witness to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ and that catechesis is offered and available to all adults, young people, and children.
Saint Mary's Parish was founded in 1855 by Fr. Francis Xavier Pierz with German settlers who had moved to this area. He bought an entire block of land for $500. On May 21, 1855, he said Mass in the log home of John and Catherina (Rengel) Schwarz. Here, plans were made for the organization of the parish, including the building of a church and school.
Our history is closely connected to the history of the Benedictines at Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville and Saint Benedict Monastery in Saint Joseph. Monks from Pennsylvania were given land by King Ludwig of Bavaria. One year after the establishment of the parish in 1856, a Benedictine priest from Saint John's became the first pastor of the small, wood-frame, "L-shaped" style Saint Mary's church/school located across the street from the present parish office on 8th Avenue.
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