The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-05-22
PRO-CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY
ANGELS, ST. CLOUD, MINI.

The cathedral parish of St. Cloud
was formed by a division of the parish
of the Immaculate Conception in 1884.
Since 1856 the latter had been the
only Catholic parish in the city. The
late vicar apostolic of northern Min
nesota, Bishop Rupert Seidenbusch,
o. S. B., had temporarily made the
Church of the Immaculate Conception
his Pro-Cathedral in 1875, and had
lived in it's parsonage until 1876, when
he purchased the Broker residence,
which serves as rectOry for the pres
ent Pro-Cathedral.
The organization of the new parish
was projected in 1888 and was en-
trusted to Rev Francis X. A. Stemper,
who commenced to build the present
church in the fall of that year. He
held the first services in it on the
first Sunday in Advent, November 80,
1884. According to the Bishops or
ders, all the English-speaking Cath
olics of the city were to be members
of it, also all the Catholics of other
tongues, excepting Polish Catholics,
who spoke Polish only. The church is
situated on the corner of Sixth ave-
nue. and Third street North, about two
blocks from the Mississippi river. 1t
is an unpretentious structure built of
granite and red brick in the Roman
esque style of architecture, with one
tower, from plans by William Schick-
ell of New York The building COM
pleted sufficiently so that Mass could
be said in it, together with the bells,
cost the sum of $2S,819. Of this
amount citizens of st. Cloud contrib
uted the sum of s6,127.36 by means of
a fair and a collection" (St. Cloud
Times, September 10, 1909 In ad.
dition the sum of 81 1928 was raised
by seven other congregations of the
vicariate, and larger amounts were
contributed by friends of Bishop Sci
denbusch and by the mission society
of Munich, Bavaria.
Three years after the organization
of the parish, Father Stemper built
a parochial school, which was opened
in October, 1887, with an attendance
of 100 pupils. This enterprise bur
| dened the congregation with a debt
| of $4,000. 1.-The cost of the Cathedral
was not much of burden for the
parishioners or the diocese, for the Rt
Rev. Bishop secured three-fourths Of
| the funds from outside sources. Bu
| the school was to be paid for by the
| people of the parish and this has beer
accomplished" (Times, as above
Bishop Zardetti is authority for the
statement that Bishop Seidenbuscf
built the church and school eat {
great personal expense, giving freely
of his own, whenever it was neces
sary." (The Diocese of st. Cloud, Sep
TENDER, 1917 Father Stemper wa:
| pastor of the congregation for thu
pastor of the congregation for thu
space of five years and labored al
this while without an assistant; dur
ing the last two years 1S87-1S89) h
was, in addition, vicar-general.
The erection of the vicariate into
diocese is 1889 brought a change
Bishop Zardetti retained the churcl
as his Cathedral, of which tn
late Rev. Aloysius Raster was recto
after the departure of Father Stem
per in the same year. In 1890 tn
Bishop appointed Rev. Bernard Rich
ter rector The church was still yer
poorly furnished. Father Richter e,
tended the gallery, decorated the int
rior, produced new affairs, pulpit
confessionals, vestments, etc. 1
1892 the front entrance was adorne
with costly steps of granite and
cement pavement. The parsonage wa
enlarged and supplied with modern in
provements, and the grounds abor
the church and parsonage were plan
ed with trees.
!, At the time of Bishop Zardetti
promotion to the see of Bucharest
; 1894, there was a debt of $4,000 Q
, church and school.
HIS successor, Bishop Marty.
1895 appointed Rev. Edward ions