Pioneer Bishops of Iowa

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Iowa up to 1900.  For more information about Iowa, see my blog of April 10, 2017.

A party led by the French explorer, Louis Joliet, and the French Jesuit, Father Jacques Marquette, were the first Catholics to visit what is now Iowa.  Coming down the Wisconsin River, they “discovered” the Mississippi River and saw the land that is now Iowa on June 17, 1673.  However, European and American settlement was slow in coming to Iowa.  Julien Dubuque, a French Canadian, operated lead mining operations near the present-day city of Dubuque from 1788 to 1810.  Iowa became part of the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Army operated Fort Madison from 1808 to 1813.

It was not until the conclusion of the Black Hawk War in 1832 that eastern Iowa was opened to settlers and settlements were quickly made, including Dubuque in 1833 and Davenport in 1836.  Iowa became part of the Wisconsin Territory in 1836, became the Iowa Territory in 1838, and became the 29th State in 1846.

Catholic activity also began quickly after the conclusion of the Black Hawk War.  A Jesuit priest, Father Charles van Quickenborne, came to what is now Keokuk in 1832 and Dubuque in 1833.  St. Raphael’s Cathedral parish, the oldest Christian church in Iowa, dates to 1833 when Father C.P. Fitzmorris of Galena, Illinois, said the first Mass in Iowa at a private home in Dubuque.  A Dominican priest, Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, built the first St. Raphael’s church in 1836 and built St. Anthony’s Church in Davenport in 1837.  Many of the first Iowa settlers were French, German, or Irish Catholics attracted by the lead mines and the fertile ground.  To shepherd these Catholics, Pope Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Dubuque in 1837 and appointed Mathias Loras as the first Bishop.

There were only about 40,000 people in Iowa when the Diocese of Dubuque was established in 1837.  By 1880, the Diocese encompassed only the State of Iowa and the total population of the State had risen to 1.6 million.  The following year, Pope Leo XIII created a new diocese for southern Iowa, the Diocese of Davenport.  Pope Leo raised Dubuque to an Archdiocese in 1893 and created a new diocese for northwestern Iowa, the Diocese of Sioux City, in 1902.  By 1911, there were about a quarter million Catholics in Iowa out of a total population of 2.2 million and in that year, Pope Pius X created the Diocese of Des Moines for southwestern Iowa.  Des Moines had become the state capital in 1857 and Iowa’s largest city in 1880.

Mathias Loras was born in France in 1792.  He was from an aristocratic family and 17 family members, including his father, were executed during the French Revolution.  He attended seminary and was friends with St. John Vianney.  Loras was ordained a priest in 1815 for the Archdiocese of Lyon.  He was recruited by the newly appointed Bishop of Mobile, Alabama, and came to Mobile in 1829.  There he served as vicar general of the diocese, cathedral rector, and president of Spring Hill College.  He was appointed the first Bishop of Dubuque, Iowa, in 1837.

Loras’ diocese consisted of what are now Iowa, most of Minnesota, and the eastern halves of North and South Dakota.  When he arrived in Dubuque in 1839, after traveling to Europe, there were only three Catholic churches in the Diocese—one in Dubuque, one in Davenport, and one in Lee County, Iowa—serving about 2,500 Catholics.  There was also a Native American mission.  He brought with him two priests and six seminarians, including Lucien Galtier (who built the first church in St. Paul, Minnesota), Joseph Cretin (later the first Bishop of St. Paul), and Augustine Ravoux (missionary to the Native Americans in the Dakotas), who joined the one priest—the Venerable Samuel Mazzuchelli—already in Iowa.  Loras established a seminary (now Loras College) and brought religious orders to work in the Diocese, including the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (to establish schools) and the Trappists (who established the Abbey of New Melleray).  He also established missions for the Native Americans, who he visited sometimes in a canoe.  He encouraged Germans and Irish from the East Coast and Europe to settle in Iowa and he bought property throughout Iowa to eventually build churches and schools.  (The Germans and Irish often clashed with each other and with their French bishop, and Loras had to flee Dubuque on two occasions.)  At the time of his death in 1858 after a long illness, the Diocese (which was then the State of Iowa) had 54,000 Catholics, served by 60 churches and 48 priests.  Loras’ reputation has been tarnished by the recent discovery that he may have owned a slave from 1836 to 1852, who remained in Mobile, but was hired out by Loras.

Clement Smyth was born Timothy Smyth in Ireland in 1810.  He became a Cistercian (Trappist) monk and was ordained a priest in 1841, taking the name Clement.  He initially established a monastery in Pennsylvania, but soon moved the monastery to Iowa.  He served as the first Prior of New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque from 1849 to 1857.  He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Dubuque in 1857 and became bishop in 1858 upon the death of Bishop Mathias Loras.  While serving as coadjutor bishop, he was named administrator of the Diocese of Chicago for six months.  During this time, he was shot at after publicly excommunicating an apostate priest in Kankakee.

As Bishop of Dubuque, Smyth convened a diocesan synod which established rules and procedures for the Diocese, and he recruited priests from Ireland.  He built several churches, including St. Raphael’s Cathedral, and started a school for boys.  He also saw the Diocese through the difficult days of the Civil War—made more difficult because he was pro-Union and many people in Dubuque was pro-Confederate.  His homily after the death of President Lincoln led to an arsonist destroying his coach house, carriage, and horses.  Local citizens, both Catholic and Protestant, replaced the losses.  Smyth was known for his piety and charity.  There were 90,000 Catholics in Iowa at the time of Smyth’s death in 1865.

John Hennessy was born in Ireland in 1825 and attended seminary first in Dublin, and then in Missouri.  He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1850.  He served at several Missouri parishes and as a seminary professor and president.  He also spent two years in Rome as the Archbishop’s representative.  He was appointed Bishop of Dubuque in 1866 and became Archbishop of Dubuque in 1893.

Hennessy promoted parochial schools in the Diocese, and he established several schools (and recruited nuns to operate them), as well as dozens of parishes and several charitable institutions.  He recruited priests from Germany and Ireland and was noted for his administrative and preaching abilities.  He attended the First Vatican Council in Rome and the Third Plenary Council in Baltimore.  During his time as bishop, the Diocese of Davenport was created for southern Iowa.  Hennessy died in 1900 and left his estate of $700,000 to various Catholic charities.  

John McMullen was born in Ireland in 1832.  He was one of ten children.  He and his family moved to Canada when he was one year old and later, they moved to Upstate New York and then to Chicago.  McMullen attended public and parochial schools in Chicago before entering the seminary.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Chicago in 1858.  He served at several parishes in Chicago and Northern Illinois, started orphanages boys and girls, established a home for former prostitutes, and frequently ministered to those imprisoned.  He renovated Holy Name church in Chicago only to see it burn down during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.  He rebuilt the church, which is now the Cathedral for the Archdiocese, and traveled throughout the United States and Canada raising funds to assist fire victims and rebuild Chicago’s churches.  McMullen was named vicar general of the Diocese in 1877.  McMullen was appointed first Bishop of Davenport in 1881.

McMullen’s new Diocese had 45,000 Catholics served by 70 priests.  Bishop McMullen was bishop for only a short time, but he established St. Ambrose University in 1882.  He also traveled throughout the Diocese—then consisting of southern Iowa, confirming as many as 13,000.  He established a synod to organize the Diocese and was known for his simple lifestyle.  He died of stomach cancer in 1883.

Henry Cosgrove was born in Pennsylvania in 1834 to Irish immigrant parents.  The family moved to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1845.  After attending seminary in Missouri, Cosgrove was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Dubuque in 1857.  He was appointed pastor of St. Margaret’s parish in Davenport in 1861.  In 1873, an arsonist tried to set the church on fire and in 1878 three men broke into the church hoping to steal the collection. One of the men shot at Cosgrove and missed and all three fled without the collection.  In 1881, the Diocese of Davenport was created, and Cosgrove became a priest in the new Diocese.  St. Margaret’s Church was named the Cathedral and Cosgrove became cathedral rector and later vicar general for the Diocese.  After Bishop McMullen died in 1883, a list of names of possible successors was sent by the Diocese to the Vatican.  Oddly enough, the list did not have Cosgrove’s name even though he was vicar general.  It turns out that a group of priests from Des Moines had omitted his name as they hoped the Diocese would move from Davenport to Des Moines.  Wise to the move, Pope Leo XIII appointed Cosgrove second Bishop of Davenport in 1884.

Cosgrove was the first U.S.-born bishop appointed to a diocese west of the Mississippi River.  Bishop Cosgrove built several new churches, including Sacred Heart Cathedral, and also built schools and an orphan home.  Cosgrove built St. Ambrose College at its current location in 1885.  He attended the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 and convened a Diocesan Synod in 1904.  He was a strong supporter of the temperance movement, and he encouraged Catholic immigrants to settle in the Midwest.  He died of cancer in 1906.  While he was Bishop, the Diocese grew from 45,000 Catholics with 79 priests to 70,000 Catholics with 135 priests.

Basilicas in Asia

I blogged about the following basilica on December 9, 2019.

• Co-Cathedral and Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan, Nagasaki, Japan.

I blogged about the following basilica on March 3, 2020.

• Basilica of Our Lady, Help of Christians, Shanghai, China.

I blogged about the following basilica on May 28, 2021.

• Cathedral Basilica of Notre Dame, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Basilica of Our Lady of La Vang, La Vang, Vietnam

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII in 1961.

Catholics were being persecuted by the government of Viet Nam in the late 1700s and early 1800s.  Vietnamese Catholics saw an apparition of Our Lady with the Infant Jesus.  Pilgrimages began and a chapel was built in 1820.  This chapel was destroyed during another wave of persecution and was replaced in the late 1800s.  This church—the Basilica—was destroyed in 1972 during the Vietnam War.  A new church is expected to be built in 2023.

Both pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Xuan Truong, Vietnam

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

The Neo-Gothic Basilica is the third church on this site since 1866.  It was completed in 1933 and is administered by Spanish Dominicans.  In front of the Basilica are two monuments—one is a tomb for 83 martyrs and the other is a pillar topped with a statue of St. Dominic.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of the Immaculate Mary, Kien Khe, Vietnam

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

The Gothic church was built between 1877 and 1883 and served as the Cathedral for the Archdiocese of Hanoi until 1936.  It is the oldest Catholic church in Vietnam, can hold 4,000 to 5,000 people, and its floor is made of ironwood to keep it from sinking.  The main altar is made of carved wood lacquered in gold in a Vietnamese style.

All pictures are from local sources.

Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Wanluan Township, Taiwan

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1984.

The Basilica, also known as the Wanchin Church, began as a small mud church constructed by a Dominican priest.  An earthquake destroyed that building in 1863 and it was replaced in 1870.  20th Century renovations have resulted in the current building, which resembles a Spanish fort.

 

Pictures are from Wikipedia, Pinterest, and Flickr.

Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Rosary, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

The Basilica is the Cathedral for the Diocese of Kaohsiung.  The church was originally built in 1860 by Filipinos and expanded in 1928.  It is the oldest Catholic church in Taiwan and was built using Gothic and Romanesque styles.

The first picture is from Flickr and the other two are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of St. Anne, Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Francis in 2019.

Chinese Catholics came to this area in the 1830s and were under the spiritual care of French missionaries.  A church was built in the 1830s, a second in 1865, and a third in 1888.  After the Second World War, the British, who controlled Malaysia, were concerned that the Chinese who lived in this area might be Communists.  Severe restrictions were placed on the church grounds until 1960 and activities at the church did not commence until 1977.  The current Basilica was built between 1998 and 2002.  It is made of brick and holds 2,200 people.  About 100,000 people come each year to celebrate the Feast of St. Anne.

The first picture is from the basilica website, the second from TripAdvisor, and the last two from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Lanka, Tewatta, Sri Lanka

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1973.

A chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes was dedicated in 1911 which was expanded into a church in the 1930s.  During the Second World War, the Archbishop of Colombo vowed that if Sri Lanka was spared major warfare, he would build a basilica to honor Our Lady of Lanka.  He died before this promise could be kept but his successors took on the mission.  The Basilica was built between 1950 and 1974. 

The first three pictures are from local sources and the last is from Wikipedia.

Pioneer Bishops of Indiana

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Indiana up to 1900.  For more information about Indiana, see my blog of September 20, 2019.

French explorers and fur traders, such as Robert Cavalier (La Salle) and Louis Jolliet, accompanied by Franciscan (e.g., Louis Hennepin) and Jesuit (e.g., Jacques Marquette) priests likely came to Indiana in the 1660s and 1670s.  A Jesuit priest, Claude Allouez, established a mission on the St. Joseph River in 1680 near what is now Niles, Michigan, to minister to the Miami tribe on both sides of the current day state line.  By 1733, the French had established outposts at current day South Bend, Fort Ouiatenon [near Lafayette], Fort Miami [Fort Wayne], and Poste au Oaubache [Vincennes].  St. Francis Xavier church was established in Vincennes in 1749 and is the oldest Christian church in Indiana.

Indiana became part of the United States in 1783 following the American Revolution.  The Northwest Territory, which included current day Indiana, was established in 1787, and a separate Indiana Territory (which included modern day Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Michigan and Minnesota) was established in 1800, with Vincennes as the capital.  Indiana became the 19th State in 1816 at which time there were about 500 Catholics in the state, mostly of French ancestry.  The original French Catholics were soon joined by English Catholics from Kentucky, and German and Irish Catholics.

Indiana came under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky [now the Archdiocese of Louisville] after its creation in 1808.  Pope Gregory XVI made Indiana its own diocese (the Diocese of Vincennes, now the Archdiocese of Indianapolis) in 1834.  Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Fort Wayne in 1857 to serve northern Indiana.  Francis Chatard, upon becoming Bishop of Vincennes in 1878, moved to Indianapolis, which had become the capital of Indiana in 1825 and was by this time the largest city in the state.  The name of the diocese was changed to the Diocese of Indianapolis in 1898.  Pope Pius XII, in 1944, elevated Indianapolis to an Archdiocese and created new dioceses at Lafayette and Evansville, and in 1957, created the Diocese of Gary.  In 1960, the name of the Diocese of Fort Wayne was changed to the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

Simon G. Brute was born in France in 1779 and graduated from medical school in 1803.  Upon graduation, he immediately enrolled in one of newly reopened seminaries following the French Revolution.  He was ordained a Sulpician priest in 1808.  He met Benedict Flaget, the new Bishop of Bardstown, Kentucky (now the Archdiocese of Louisville), and accompanied Flaget to the United States in 1810.  He spent many years in Maryland, including as a pastor on the Eastern Shore, as pastor and teacher at Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, where he also served as spiritual director to Elizabeth Ann Seton, and in Baltimore at St. Mary’s College where he served as president.

Bruté was appointed the first Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana (now the Archdiocese of Indianapolis) in 1834.  His diocese covered the State of Indiana and part of Illinois and he had only three priests to help him.  He became a U.S. citizen in 1835 and went to Europe and returned the following year with 20 priests and seminarians to serve the 25,000 Catholics in the Diocese.  Brute raised enough money in Europe to finish St. Xavier Cathedral, and build a seminary, school, and orphan home.  He traveled frequently throughout his vast Diocese celebrating Mass, administering the Sacraments, and meeting with his priests.  He also sent a priest to evangelize the Potawatomi people.  Bishop Brute died in 1839 and has been declared a Servant of God—the first step toward canonization.  Brute was known for his holiness and intelligence.  President John Quincy Adams said the Brute was “the most learned man…in America.”

Celestine de la Hailandiere was born in France in 1798 during the French Revolution.  He was baptized by a priest hiding in his father’s house.  He eventually became a lawyer and for a time served as a judge.  He decided to enter the seminary and was ordained a priest in 1825.  La Hailandiere met Bishop Brute in 1836 in France, and la Hailandiere accompanied Brute to the United States later that year.  The Diocese of Vincennes (now the Archdiocese of Indianapolis) included all of Indiana and eastern Illinois but had few Catholics.

La Hailandiere was appointed coadjutor bishop of Vincennes in May 1839 and became Bishop of Vincennes the next month upon Brute’s death.  La Hailandiere invited the Congregation of the Holy Cross to establish a college near South Bend (now the University of Notre Dame) and the Sisters of Providence to establish what is now St. Mary-of-the-Woods College near Terre Haute.  (The Sisters were led by Theodore Guerin, now a canonized saint.)  In 1843, the Illinois part of the Diocese was given to the new Diocese of Chicago.  For whatever reason, la Hailandiere had difficulty getting along with others including the clergy and religious in his Diocese and for this reason, he resigned as Bishop and returned to France in 1847.  He died in 1882 and his body, as he had requested, was returned to Vincennes for burial.

John S. Bazin was born in France in 1796 and ordained in Lyon in 1822.  He came to Mobile, Alabama, in 1830 and worked to instruct youth in the Faith.  He eventually became vicar general of the Diocese of Mobile and successfully brought in the Jesuits to administer Spring Hill College and the Brothers of the Christian Schools to operate an orphanage.  He was named Bishop of Vincennes in 1847.  Bishop Bazin settled relations with diocesan clergy and religious sisters that had deteriorated under Bishop la Hailandiere and improved seminary training by merging a struggling Catholic college with the diocesan seminary.  He also initiated plans to build an orphanage.  Bishop Bazin died on Easter Sunday 1848 of pneumonia, after serving only six months as Bishop.  

Maurice de Saint-Palais was born in France in 1811 and ordained a priest in Paris in 1836.  He was recruited by Bishop Simon Brute to come to America.  Within two months of his ordination, he came to Vincennes and started serving in parishes within the Diocese.

De Saint-Palais was named Bishop of Vincennes in 1848.  During his time as bishop, de Saint-Palais oversaw the growth in the Diocese from 30,000 to 80,000 Catholics and 35 to 104 priests.  This growth is even more significant given that at the time he became Bishop, his Diocese covered all of Indiana and at the time of his death, only the southern half.  He also invited Benedictine monks from the Swiss Abbey of Einsiedeln, to visit Indiana.  This led, in 1856, to the establishment of St. Meinrad Archabbey, the first Benedictine institution in the United States.  De Saint-Palais invited other religious orders to administer hospitals and parishes.  He also established a weekly Diocesan newspaper and an orphan home, but closed the Diocesan seminary.  It had become apparent to Bishop de Saint-Palais that Indianapolis had become a more important city than Vincennes, but he left the decision to move to his successor.  Bishop de Saint-Palais died in 1877.

Silas Francis Chatard was born in Baltimore in 1834.  Both his father and his grandfather, who had come to Baltimore from what is now the Dominican Republic, were physicians.  Chatard himself was a physician in Baltimore before deciding to become a priest.  He attended seminary in Rome and was ordained in 1862.  He was immediately named vice-rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome and in 1868 became Rector.  Chatard favorably impressed Pope Pius IX who sent him back to the United States as Bishop of Vincennes in 1878.  Chatard, for whatever reason, switched his first names at that time to become Francis Silas Chatard.

Chatard moved to Indianapolis shortly after being installed as Bishop of Vincennes.  Indianapolis had become the largest city in Indiana with over 100,000 people and was centrally located, whereas Vincennes only had 10,000 people.  The Vatican officially transferred the Diocese to Indianapolis in 1898.  As bishop, Chatard sent some of his seminarians to be trained in Europe and established a fund for retired priests.  He also encouraged Catholic lay organizations and chaired four diocesan synods.  Bishop Chatard suffered a stroke in 1899 which eventually led to his death in 1918. 

John H. Luers was born in what is now Germany in 1819 and moved with his family to Ohio in 1831.  His father was a store clerk and Luers was known for not being religious and leading a “wild” life.  A meeting with John Purcell, the Bishop of Cincinnati, changed the direction of Luers’ life and he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1846.  Luers was assigned to St. Joseph’s parish in Cincinnati and it soon became the largest German parish is the city.  Luers was appointed the first Bishop of Fort Wayne in 1857.

Bishop Luers traveled extensively throughout his diocese celebrating the Holy Eucharist as often as possible.  He established an orphan home (for children who lost both parents during the Civil War), a hospital, and other Catholic institutions and a fund to support elderly and infirm priests.  He built the current Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne and brought a number of German priests and nuns to serve the Diocese.  He oversaw growth in the Diocese from 20,000 Catholics and 20 churches to 50,000 Catholics in 75 churches.  He was an articulate defender of the Faith, especially in regard to Catholic schools.  Bishop Luers died from a stroke in 1871 while on a trip to Cleveland.

Joseph G. Dwenger was born in Ohio in 1837 and was given by his dying widowed Mother to the Missionaries of the Precious Blood who raised and educated him.  He later joined the Missionaries and was ordained a priest for the Missionaries in 1859.  Dwenger served as seminary rector, pastor, traveling evangelist in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, and theologian to the Archbishop of Cincinnati.  He was appointed Bishop of Fort Wayne in 1872.

Bishop Dwenger was a strong advocate of parochial schools and established a diocesan school board.  He also established several homes for orphans—as he himself was orphaned at a young age—and he improved the financial condition of the Diocese.  He led the first American pilgrimage to Lourdes (in 1874) and traveled four times to Rome.  Dwenger was partially responsible for convincing the U.S. State Department to block the planned confiscation of the American College in Rome by the Italian government.  He also helped establish St. Joseph’s College near Rensselaer.  Bishop Dwenger died in 1893, not long after his fourth trip to Rome.

Joseph Rademacher was born in Michigan in 1840 to German immigrant parents.  He attended seminary in Pennsylvania and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1863.  He served as a pastor in the Diocese for the next twenty years before being named Bishop of Nashville in 1883 and was named Bishop of Fort Wayne in 1893.  Like in Nashville, he increased the number of churches, schools, and other institutions within the Diocese, and remodeled the Cathedral in Fort Wayne.  A stroke forced Bishop Rademacher to give up the daily management of the Diocese in 1899 and he died in 1900 in a Chicago hospital.  Bishop Rademacher was noted in both dioceses for his intelligence and breadth of knowledge on many subjects, as well as for his charitable works and kindly disposition, despite being in ill-health during his time both Nashville and Fort Wayne.  

 

Pioneer Bishops of Illinois

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Illinois up to 1900.  For more information about Illinois, see my blog of July 1, 2017.

The first Europeans to come to Illinois were Frenchmen led by the explorer Louis Joliet and the Jesuit priest, Jacques Marquette.  In 1673, they came down the Mississippi River past present-day Illinois and returned to Canada by way of the Illinois River and the Great Lakes.  French missionaries established missions among the Native Americans throughout the rest of the 17th Century.  The French eventually established forts and settlements along the Mississippi River, including at Cahokia in 1699—Holy Family Church was established the same year—and Kaskaskia in 1703—Immaculate Conception Church was established as a mission in 1675.  Illinois was included as part of the Northwest Territories in 1787 and eventually attracted settlers from Eastern states.  The Illinois Territory was established in 1809 and Illinois became the 21st State in 1818.

At the time of Statehood, there were only a few hundred Catholics, most of French or Irish ancestry and living near St. Louis.  Chicago had only about 150 Catholics out of a total population of 350 when it was incorporated in 1833.  Irish immigrants came to Illinois, especially Chicago, in the next two decades to build railroads and the Illinois and Michigan Canal.  Catholics in Illinois were organized into their own diocese in 1843 when Pope Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Chicago.  By 1850, Illinois’ population had increased to 851,000 and three years later, Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Quincy (which became the Diocese of Alton in 1857 and the Diocese of Springfield in 1923) to serve Catholics in southern Illinois.

Immigrants from Europe, especially from Ireland and Germany, continued to come to Illinois during the last half of the 19th Century.  A portion of the Chicago diocese became the Diocese of Peoria in 1877 and the southern part of the Diocese of Alton became the Diocese of Belleville in 1887.  Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIII created the Province of Chicago in 1880 raising the Diocese of Chicago to the status of an archdiocese.  In 1908, with a statewide Catholic population of about one and a half million, Pope Pius X separated a portion of the Archdiocese of Chicago to create the Diocese of Rockford.  The Diocese of Joliet was separated from the Archdiocese in 1948.

William Quarter was born in Ireland in 1806 and was about to enter the seminary when he met a priest serving in the United States.  Moved by the priest’s accounts of the poor condition of the Church in the States, Quarter sailed initially to Canada in 1822.  He was not admitted to seminary in Canada due to his age, but was able to enroll at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of New York in 1829.  He served at parishes in Manhattan until 1843 when he was appointed the first Bishop of Chicago.

Bishop Quarter found fewer than 20 priests in his new Diocese when he became Bishop, but was able to increase that number to almost 50 four years later.  He built 30 churches and completed and paid off the debt of St. Mary’s in Chicago—his cathedral and the only Catholic church in Chicago at the time of his arrival.  He established a college (now the University of St. Mary of the Lake) in 1844 to train young men and brought in the Sisters of Mercy from Pittsburgh to establish St. Xavier’s Academy for young women in 1846.  He convened a diocesan synod and provided support to Chicago’s Irish immigrants.  He also convened what may have been the first theological conference in the United States in 1847.  Quarter convinced the Illinois legislature to grant the Bishop of Chicago with power to “hold real and other property in trust for religious purposes.”  Bishop Quarter died in 1848.

James O. Van de Velde was born in 1795 in what is now Belgium.  He entered the seminary in Belgium in 1815 after teaching French and Flemish for two years.  He was recruited by Father Charles Nerinckx in 1817 to come to Kentucky, but Van de Velde became ill during the voyage and stayed in Baltimore.  He attended seminary at what is now Georgetown University and entered the Jesuit order.  He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1827.  Van de Velde developed two major skills.  He was Georgetown’s librarian from 1818 to 1831 and grew the book collection from 200 to 20,000.  He also was fluent in English, Flemish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin.  After his ordination he was assigned as chaplain of Georgetown Visitation school and as pastor of two churches in Montgomery County, Maryland.  He was sent in 1831 to what is now St. Louis University in Missouri, first as a professor, and after 1840, as president.  He was named Jesuit vice-provincial in 1843 and Western Provincial in 1846.  He was appointed the second Bishop of Chicago in 1848.

The new bishop found a Diocese—consisting of the State of Illinois—that had 56 churches.  Van de Velde traveled throughout the state, using all means of transportation, to visit Catholics, some of whom had not seen a priest in years—this despite the fact that he did not enjoy good health.  He established 70 new churches, a hospital (which eventually became Rush Medical Center), orphanages, and 10 schools.  He angered some Irish because of his views on temperance and he disputed Bishop Quarters’ will with officials at St. Mary’s college.  Bishop Van de Velde was granted permission by the Vatican in 1853 to become Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi, in an attempt to regain his health.  Unfortunately, Van de Velde broke his leg three months after his arrival in Natchez.  Shortly thereafter, he contracted yellow fever and he died in 1855.

Anthony O’Regan was born in Ireland in 1809 and ordained a priest there in 1834.  He later became president of a university in Ireland and he came to St. Louis in 1849 to be a seminary rector.  He was appointed the third Bishop of Chicago in 1854.  Bishop O’Regan never sought to be bishop and thought himself unworthy—an opinion shared by many of his priests, especially those who were not Irish.  He did bring the Jesuits and Redemptorists to the Diocese and established several parishes and Calvary Cemetery.  Disputes with a French-Canadian priest and with the faculty at St. Mary’s college (which resulted in its closure), led O’Regan, after being Bishop for only two and a half years, to travel to Rome to ask permission to resign.  The Vatican granted permission in 1858 and O’Regan moved to London, never returning to the United States.  He died in 1866.  

James Duggan was born in Ireland in 1825.  Duggan came to the United States in 1842 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of St. Louis in 1847.  He was appointed to succeed O’Regan in Chicago in 1859, thus becoming the fourth Bishop of Chicago in 15 years.  Bishop Duggan brought needed stability to the Diocese.  He brought several religious orders into the Diocese to help with the educational and charitable needs of the people.  He also established the parochial school system for the Diocese.  Unfortunately, while attending the Second Plenary Council in Baltimore in 1866, he showed signs of mental illness.  He sought a cure in New Mexico, but it was to no avail and in 1869, he was committed to an asylum where he remained for the rest of his life.  He officially remained Bishop until 1880 and he died in 1899.

Bishops were usually appointed for life in those days, but since Duggan was in an asylum, Thomas Foley was named apostolic administrator and coadjutor bishop of Chicago in 1869.  Bishop Foley was born in Baltimore in 1822 and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1846.  He had barely arrived in Chicago when the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 devastated the city and destroyed several Catholic churches and many other Catholic buildings.  Bishop Foley was able to rebuild these buildings and build many more—he oversaw the construction of more than two dozen new churches in the Diocese.  Like Bishop Duggan, Foley brought in religious orders like the Franciscans to administer parishes, schools, and other institutions.  Bishop Foley was expected to become the fifth Bishop of Chicago but died in 1879 before he could receive that honor.  (Duggan was still the official Bishop of Chicago until 1880.)

Patrick A. Feehan was born in Ireland in 1829.  His father, a successful farmer, insured that Feehan received a good education.  Feehan was a student and a teacher at Maynooth College in Ireland when he met Archbishop Peter Kenrick of St. Louis.  Kenrick invited Feehan to come to St. Louis and teach in the seminary there.  Feehan came to the United States in 1852—his family had emigrated there two years before.  He was ordained a priest later that year.  Feehan served as pastor of several St. Louis churches and taught in the seminary, eventually becoming president.  He was one of the founders of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the United States.  After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, boatloads of wounded were brought to the docks in St. Louis and Feehan attended to the spiritual needs of the wounded and dying.

Feehan was appointed Bishop of Nashville in 1865 and was named the first Archbishop of Chicago in 1880.  Archbishop Feehan saw the Catholic population of the Archdiocese increase from 230,000 when he became archbishop to 800,000 at the time of his death.  Most of this growth came from immigrants from Poland, France, Italy, and Eastern Europe. To try to keep pace with this growth, Feehan increased the number of parishes from 194 to 298, more than half of which served a particular ethnic group.  New facilities were also necessary as a result of the 1871 Chicago Fire.  Feehan was a strong advocate of Catholic education and chaired the schools committee at the Third Plenary Council (a meeting of all U.S. bishops) in 1884.  He also participated in religious activities associated with Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and was noted for his preaching abilities.  He convened the first Archdiocesan synod in 1887 and established an archdiocesan newspaper in 1892.  Feehan also invited the Vincentians to establish DePaul University.  He did face some conflict.  Feehan and Polish Catholics at one parish clashed over the selection of a pastor resulting in a few thousand Poles leaving the Church and one priest being excommunicated.  Another priest was excommunicated when he refused to accept Feehan’s choice for an auxiliary bishop.  Feehan, along with other religious leaders, successfully fought to repeal a state law that gave local school boards some control over parochial schools.  He died in 1902 from a stroke.

Henry D. Juncker was born in France in 1809.  He attended seminary in France before coming to Cincinnati.  He completed his studies and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1834.  He served at parishes in Columbus, Cincinnati, Canton, and Dayton until he was named the first Bishop of Alton in 1857.  (The Diocese was established at Quincy in 1853 and Joseph Melcher was appointed Bishop, but Melcher refused the appointment.  The see moved to Alton in 1857 and to Springfield in 1923.  Melcher became the first Bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1868.) 

Bishop Juncker traveled to Europe and brought back seven priests and 12 seminarians to serve in his new Diocese—the number of priests increased from 28 to more than 80 while he served as Bishop.  He built new parishes, schools, hospitals, and other Catholic institutions to serve the large increase in the number of Catholics in the Diocese—numbering 85,000 at the time of his death.  He also invited the Recollect Franciscans from Germany who served at several parishes and established a monastery, seminary, and college.  Religious orders of women were invited to serve as teachers and nurses.  After the Civil War began in 1861, Juncker established a medical camp in Cairo to care for wounded soldiers.  Bishop Juncker died in 1868.

Peter J. Baltes was born in Bavaria in 1827 and came with his family to Upstate New York in 1833.  He father was a carpenter and tinsmith.  He attended seminary in Chicago and Montreal before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Chicago in 1853.  He was assigned to a parish in southern Illinois which soon became part of the new Diocese of Quincy.  He then served in Belleville until 1866 when he was named vicar general for the Diocese, which now was called Alton.  He was named Bishop of Alton in 1870.

Bishop Baltes was the first Bishop consecrated in Illinois.  Baltes issued pastoral instructions that mandated parishes to build schools, to avoid large debt, and to build with bricks to prevent fires.  He even gave instructions on the use of church bells.  He also persuaded the State of Illinois to allow Catholic institutions to incorporate and he forbad Catholics from reading newspapers or journals that were critical of the Church (although he rescinded this a few years later).  The Diocese continued to grow under Bishop Baltes and he responded to this growth with the construction of more churches, schools, and other institutions.  He brought in women religious to staff schools and hospitals.  At the time of his death in 1886, the Diocese had 177 priests and 420 nuns serving 220 churches and missions, 13 hospitals, and other institutions.  He died from liver disease after suffering for two years.

James Ryan was born in Ireland in 1848 and moved at age 7 with his family to Kentucky.  After attending seminary in Kentucky, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Louisville in 1871.  Ryan transferred to the new Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, in 1877.  He served a parishes in Illinois until 1888 when he was named Bishop of Alton.

Bishop Ryan presided over a smaller Diocese of Alton after the Diocese of Belleville was created in 1887.  Nevertheless, the need for additional churches and schools continued to be a major concern of the bishop—he built 40 churches and 7 schools.  He also built new hospitals and an orphanage.  He convened the Diocese’s first synod in 1889 to bring the Diocese into compliance with the decrees of the three national Plenary Councils of Baltimore.  He also sought to better serve the large number of immigrants by giving them priests who spoke their language.  The Diocese had 87,000 Catholics at the time of his death in 1923.  

John L. Spalding was born in Kentucky in 1840 and attended seminaries in Maryland, Ohio, and Belgium before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Louisville in 1863.  He was related to both Martin Spalding, who served as Bishop of Louisville and later as Archbishop of Baltimore, and Catherine Spalding, the founder of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.  As a young priest, he served at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville and served as a theologian at the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866.  In 1872, he went to New York to write a biography of his recently deceased uncle, Martin Spalding, and served as an assistant pastor of a church there.

Spalding was only 36 when he became the first Bishop of Peoria in 1876.  As bishop for more than 30 years, he saw an increase in the number of parishes from 40 to 200 and the number of schools from 12 to 70.  He was a noted author and poet and an experienced horseman.  He was one of the U.S. bishops most responsible for the founding of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  He was offered, but declined, the position of the first rector of the University.  He also encouraged the founding of Trinity College in Washington to educate Catholic women.  He was one of several U.S. bishops who favored an “Americanist” view of the Church—separation of Church and State was good for the Church—a view not held by many Church leaders in Europe.  He was one of the primary authors of the Baltimore Catechism, which was first published in 1885.  Spalding was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to mediate a 1902 miners’ strike.  He was successful in ending the strike which increased the miners’ pay and decreased their hours of work.  Spalding became paralyzed from a stroke in 1905 and resigned as bishop in 1908 and was given the personal title of Archbishop.  He died in 1916. 

John Janssen was born in Germany in 1835 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Alton in 1858.  He initially served at a German-speaking parish in Springfield before becoming the Bishop’s secretary and Diocesan chancellor in 1863.  He became vicar general for the Diocese in 1870 while also serving a parish in Quincy for a time.  The Diocese of Belleville was created in 1888 and Janssen was named its first Bishop the following year.  Midway through Janssen’s time as Bishop, the Diocese contained 104 churches, 94 priests, 64 schools, and 50,000 Catholics.  Janssen invited the Poor Handmaids of Christ to establish a hospital in East St. Louis that was open to all regardless of race or religion.  Bishop Janssen died in 1913.

Pioneer Bishops of Idaho

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Idaho up to 1900.  For more information about Idaho, see my blog of July 8, 2017.

The first non-Native Americans to come to Idaho were French Canadian fur traders, who came throughout the last half of the 18th Century and first half of the 19th Century, establishing outposts at Kalispell, Fort Hall, and Boise.  The Lewis and Clark expedition came to Idaho during 1805-1806 giving the United States a claim to the region.  But control of the Pacific Northwest would be disputed by the British and Americans until 1848.  In that year, a treaty gave the region to the United States and Idaho became part of the newly formed Oregon Territory.  Gold was discovered near Pierce in 1860 and thousands of miners came from California and the East seeking their fortune.  Mining of other minerals soon became a major industry.  The Idaho Territory was formed in 1863, and by 1870, Idaho had about 11,000 people.  It had 82,000 people when it became the 43rd State in 1890.

Native Americans in Idaho first became aware of the Catholic Faith from the French Canadians who came there over 200 years ago.  Sometime prior to 1820, a group of Catholic Iroquois, led by Ignace La Mousse, settled among the Flathead tribe, and introduced the Faith to them.  Members of the Flathead and Nez Perce tribes journeyed to St. Louis four times in the 1830s seeking the services of a priest.  The Jesuit Father Peter De Smet arrived in Idaho in 1840 and celebrated the first Mass near Henry Lake.  Father De Smet and other Jesuits ministered to the Flatheads, Nez Perce, and Pend d”Oreille tribes and established what is now known as the Cataldo Mission (dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus) in 1842—the current chapel was built in 1853 and is the oldest building in Idaho.

Prior to 1860, most Catholics in Idaho were Native American.  This changed with the discovery of gold in 1860—many of the miners were Irish Catholic.  Pope Pius IX created the Vicariate Apostolic of Idaho in 1868 at which time there were about 1,500 Catholics there.  (The Vicariate was originally of Idaho and Montana.  Montana was made a separate vicariate in 1883.)  Many of the Irish Catholics left Idaho after the gold rush ended in the early 1870s and many of the Native Americans were lost to the Faith because the U.S. Government placed them on reservations under the spiritual guidance of Protestant missionaries.  Pope Leo XIII established the Diocese of Boise in 1893—at which time there were about 7,000 Catholics out of a total population of over 100,000.  Today, it is estimated that half of Idaho’s Catholics are of Hispanic origin.

Louis A. Lootens was born in what is now Belgium in 1827.  He was ordained a priest in Paris in 1851 and came to Victoria, British Columbia, the following year.  He spent nine years there before becoming a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.  He was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Idaho (a missionary diocese) in 1868.  Lootens was given charge of a territory that included all of today’s State of Idaho as well as portions of Montana and Wyoming.  This vast territory had about 1,500 Catholics served by seven priests.  He used St. Joseph’s Church in Idaho City—the first non-mission church of any denomination in Idaho—as his cathedral, and lived in two attached rooms.  He built the first church in Boise in 1870 but it burned down shortly after completion.  Bishop Lootens also attended the First Vatican Council in 1870.  He had a difficult time in Idaho—many people left the area after the end of the gold rush in 1870 and he faced health problems caused by primitive living conditions and the need to travel by foot or horseback over the vast distances of his vicariate apostolic.  He resigned as vicar apostolic in 1876 and spent his remaining years in Canada, ministering to the native peoples and writing books.  He died in 1898.

Alphonse J. Glorieux was born in Belgium in 1844 and entered the seminary intending to become a missionary in the United States.  He was ordained a priest in Belgium in 1867 and soon left for Portland, Oregon.  He spent the next four years serving at churches in Oregon and in 1871 was appointed first president of a boy’s school in Portland.  After a nine-year vacancy, Glorieux was named the second Vicar Apostolic of Idaho in 1885 and became the first Bishop of Boise in 1893.  

The new Diocese consisted of what is now the State of Idaho and had 7,000 Catholics, 10 priests, and 27 churches.  Glorieux selected St. John the Evangelist church in Boise to be his cathedral and replaced it with a new structure.  During his 32 years as vicar apostolic and bishop, Bishop Glorieux built 93 new churches and missions, several schools, five hospitals, an orphanage, and a home for the aged.  He also ordained almost 50 priests.  He died in 1917.

Pioneer Bishops of Hawaii

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Hawaii up to 1900.  For more information about Hawaii, see my blog of May 4, 2018.

The first known European to come to Hawaii was the English explorer, James Cook, in 1778—he named Hawaii the Sandwich Islands.  Protestant missionaries from New England came starting in 1820 and were successful in converting many Hawaiians to Christianity.  Hawaii was led by kings until a republic was formed in 1894.  Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898 and became a territory in 1900.  Hawaii became the 50th State in 1959.

Pope Leo XII created the Prefecture Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands in 1825.  [A prefecture apostolic is a missionary jurisdiction.]  Two years later, Father Alexis Bachelot (1796-1837), accompanied by two other members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, arrived as the first Prefect Apostolic.  Bachelot was born in France and ordained in 1820.  He died of an illness while at sea. 

The priests made converts among the Hawaiians, which upset the Protestant missionaries.  Catholic converts were persecuted, and the priests eventually had to leave Hawaii.  Bachelot returned in 1837 but was again forced to leave as Catholicism was outlawed in Hawaii in that year.  Two years later, a French warship arrived in Honolulu, and Captain Cyril Laplace demanded that King Kamehameha III allow freedom of religion or face the threat of war.  The King relented and soon more priests from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary arrived in Hawaii.

While Hawaii was a Prefecture Apostolic, it was under the jurisdiction of Bishop Stephen Rouchouze (1798-1843), also a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  Rouchouze was born in France and ordained Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Oceania in 1833.  He moved to Honolulu in 1840 and later that year baptized almost 200 native Hawaiians and ordained Bernabe Castan to the priesthood, the first ordination in Hawaii.  He left for Europe in 1841 to gather supplies and recruit missionaries, but died when his ship sank on the return trip in 1843.   

In 1846, Father Louis Maigret, also from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, became the first Vicar Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands—the name was later changed to Hawaii.  [A vicariate apostolic is a missionary diocese.]  The Diocese of Honolulu was created in 1941.  Hawaii had more than 20 parishes in 1900 and by 1941 that number had more than doubled. 

Louis D. Maigret was born in France in 1804 and was ordained a priest for the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1828.  The Congregation sent him to the Kingdom of Hawaii to minister to the Catholic community there.  He was sent to Micronesia in 1837 but left after seven unsuccessful months.  He was then appointed Apostolic Prefect of the Sandwich Islands and in 1846, Maigret was appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands.  Bishop Maigret built the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, established schools, and invited the Sacred Hearts Sisters to the Islands.  Maigret also printed missals and hymnals in Hawaiian.  He ordained Damien De Veuster (now a canonized saint) and sent him to Molokai to minister to the victims of Hansen’s disease (leprosy)—a ministry the Father Damien would continue until his death.  Maigret also attended the First Vatican Council in 1869.  Bishop Maigret died in 1882.

B. Herman Koeckemann was born in Germany in 1828 and became a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1851.  The Congregation sent him to Hawaii in 1854 to serve as a missionary and he was ordained a priest in 1862.  Koeckemann was named coadjutor vicar apostolic of the Sandwich Islands in 1881 and became Vicar Apostolic in 1882 upon the death of Bishop Maigret.

Many Portuguese immigrants, mostly Catholic, came to Hawaii during Koeckemann’s time as bishop, to work in the sugar plantations.  Bishop Koeckemann built many schools to serve the new immigrants as well as other Catholics and brought in religious orders such as the Brothers of the Society of Mary to staff the schools.  Koeckemann also invited Mother Marianne Cope (now a canonized saint) and the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse to work with Hansen’s disease patients.  Bishop Koeckemann died in 1892 after suddenly becoming paralyzed.

Gulstan Ropert was born in France in 1839 and joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at age 20.  He was ordained a priest for the Congregation in 1866 and was sent to Hawaii in 1868.  He served at churches on the Island of Hawaii until 1892 when he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands.

Three great events happened during the time that Bishop Ropert served as Vicar Apostolic:  the Kingdom was overthrown, Hawaii became part of the United States, and the Spanish American War was waged.  His patient temperament was well suited for the times.  These events brought Catholics to Hawaii from the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam—many to work at the sugar plantations.  Ropert established new schools to educate the immigrants’ children.  Ropert established three organizations for young men to offset the Vatican’s condemnation of other organizations, such as the Odd Fellows.  Bishop Ropert died from stomach cancer in 1903.

Basilicas in Ecuador

Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, Quito, Pichincha

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XV in 1920—the first in Ecuador.

The Basilica was built between 1701 and 1736 and is the first church and headquarters for the Mercedarian Order in Ecuador.  The church has five domes and a square tower.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of the Presentation, El Quinche, Pichincha

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII in 1959.

In 1586, the indigenous people of the region asked Diego de Robles, a Quito-trained artist, to make a statue of Our Blessed Mother.  He made the statue out of cedar and other woods.  Soon after he made the statue, seemingly miraculous events started taking place in association with Our Lady of El Quinche and a church was built.  The current Basilica was built between 1905 and 1928. 

The first picture is from Flickr, the second from a local source, and the last two are from Wikipedia.

Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Elevation, Ambato, Tungurahua

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII in 1961.

The Basilica is the Cathedral for the Diocese of Ambato.  It was built in 1954 to replace a church destroyed by an earthquake.

Pictures are from a local source, Vymaps, and Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, Guayaquil, Guayas

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII in 1962.

The Order of Mercy was one of the first religious orders to come to Guayaquil and they built a church at this location in 1787.  The current Gothic Basilica was built in the 1890s.

The first picture is from Flickr, the second from Pinterest, and the last two are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, Ibarra, Imbabura

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

The church was built as part of a Mercedarian monastery.  Construction began in 1868 shortly after the city had been destroyed by an earthquake and continued until 1945.  The façade is Gothic and Romanesque and the interior has Baroque elements.  There are 16 chapels.

The first two pictures are from Flickr and the last is from Wikipedia.

Basilica of St. Francis, Quito, Pichincha

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1965.

The Basilica and attached buildings were built between 1535 and 1650.  The entire complex includes 13 cloisters and covers 10 acres of building space alone.  It is the oldest and most significant religious site in Ecuador and is managed by the Franciscans.  The complex was built using a combination of styles including Mannerist, Renaissance, Baroque, and Mudejar.  There are more than 3,500 works of art in the complex, many completed by the Colonial Quito School of Art, which was founded at the complex.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Gualaceo, Azuay

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1966.

Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of El Cisne, El Cisne, Loja

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

Our Lady was said to have appeared to a shepherdess in 1594.  An image was soon made, and pilgrims began coming—today about five million a year.  The current Gothic church was built between 1930 and 1934 but has been enlarged four times since.

The first picture is from a local source and the second is from Wikipedia.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Hyacinth, Yaguachi, Guayas

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

A church has been on this site since 1579, but the current church was built in 1956.  The Basilica became a cathedral in 2009 with the creation of the Diocese of San Jacinto de Yaguachi.

The first picture is from a local source and the second is from Wikipedia.

Basilica of the Holy Virgin of Montserrat, Montecristi, Manabi

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

The Baroque and Gothic Basilica was built between 1959 and 1962.  The image of the Virgin of Montserrat was given by the 16th Century King of Spain, Charles V, to the city of Lima, Peru.  Somehow it made its way to Ecuador.

Both pictures are from local sources.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Patron of Ecuador, Quito, Pichincha

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1991. 

The Basilica, also known as the Basilica of the National Vow, is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas.  It was constructed between 1892 and 1909 as a reminder that Ecuador is consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of the Holy Trinity, Cuenca, Azuay

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

Picture is from Flickr.