The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-09-05
FAREWELL TO THE OLD CATHEDRAL

was in the neighborhood of seven
thousand dollars, paid for with money
the Bishop had obtained from his
paternal estate in France.
And still st. Paul was growing in
population and, also, in conscious
ness of it's future Importance. Immi
grafton was moving in rising waves
towards the rich woodlands and
prairies of Minnesota. A prosperous
future seemed secured to city and
to Territory. A new Cathedral, this
time a great Cathedral, that should
| long adorn the future, was thought to
/ be the pressing need of religion in st.
Paul. This, the dear old Cathedral,
to which we are now bidding farewell.
Plans were drawn and work begun
upon the foundation in the year 1854.
The plans indicated an edifice, marked
by stateliness of proportions and beau
teousness of form-different from
what later the Cathedral was ordered
| to be. Buttresses there were to
strengthen and variate the lateral
walls: towering steeple was to DOM
mate it's front. A newspaper of the
time describes the plans: "The base
ment of the new Cathedral is one hun
dred and seventy-five feet long by
seventy-fve feet wide. When the
steeple is added, it will make the whole
| length of the building two hundred
feet. The steeple is to be two hun
dred and fifty feet high (this, we may
| believe, bit of a journalistic imagina-
tion), all built and finished of solid
stone from foundation to spire." The
largest it was to be, and the most i'm
| posing temple of religion, to be seen
anywhere westward of Chicago.
In 1856 excavation and foundation
were sufficiently advanced to permit
the laying in place of the cornerstone.
Sunday, July the twenty-seventh, was
the chosen day. The ceremony was as
| solemn as conditions in st. Paul could
have allowed. A bishop had been
called from the, distant shores of Lake
Erie, John Timon, of Buffalo, to bless
the stone and preach the sermon.
Bishop Cretin was radiant with joy.
his dream of great things to be done
! in his diocese was taking visible form.
The Catholics and other citizens of
st. Paul were out in full numbers,
| spread far and wide across the open
plain, surrounding Sixth and st. Peter
Streets, the site of the new church.
The priests of the whole diocese had
been gathered in spiritual retreat the
| nrooa1ir0 W.T. in
the ceremony-a surpliced group of
twelve: so many priests never before
had been assembled in st. Paul. The
sermon was, the hearers declared, a
marvel of eloquence. To this day the
peroration is remembered: mot easy
the task to build such glorious
church in a young and sparsely set
tied diocese. But long pull, steady
pull, a pull all together, boys, and the
work is DONE" The day closed in
gladstone hopes that the work would
be done, quickly and we'll.
For a while all went happily with
the new-today the old-Cathedral. I
quote again from a September number
of newspaper of the time: 'The
foundation of the new edifice now be-
ing erected in the rear of the present
Catholic Church has been laid and
the walls have risen several feet. The
walls are very thick and substantial,
and will not be likely to settle as they
stand on the solid rock. We were not
aware that this building was to be so
extensive. There is lime-kiln and a
brick-kiln on the premises, while the
huge piles of stone which cucumber
! the ground in every direction, many
of them of great size, have been quar-
ried from the foundation SITE" But
alas! the unexpected was to happen:
the Cathedral fell amid shoals and
breakers.
Bishop Cretin was failing in health
He died, February the twenty-second
1857 Soon afterwards, in the same
year, the historic boom in real estate
upon which ST. Paul and Minnesota
had heretofore been feasting, palsied
and broke. The financial panic oil
1857 was upon the land: st. Pau
was poverty-stricken
Father Ravoux was the administra
tor of the diocese. What was he tc
do? A Cathedral must be built. The
brick edifice was altogether too small
to admit the crowds to hear mass
i, But whence was the money to come
, With stern pencil Father Ravou1
eliminated from the plans left BY
Bishop Cretin all else but four wall!
, and roof: b1ttresses, steeple, orna
ments of all kinds, quickly disappear
ed-the Cathedral was to be solid
spacious, but by all manner of means
cheap-a courageous and most wis,
resolution. Then, with an appeal t,
the people to bring forward the NIT,
, the panic had spared, and a pressin.
+ call for help sent to the Society o
the Propagation of the Faith il
France, he ordered to the work mason
and carpenters, confiding for the rest
,, as he often afterward said, in tn
! mercy and goodness of Almighty Goo
Deep, indeed, the debt of the oil
: Cathedral to Augustine Ravoux. Wha
| followed, l will tell in his own words
"On the fourteenth of June (1857
was begun the work, which did nc
|, cease until the Cathedral was unde
: roof: and on the thirteenth of Jun,
: 1858, though unfinished and not eve
:. plastered, it was opened for divin