America’s first basilica marks a century

MINNEAPOLIS (OSV News) — A century ago, Pope Pius XI granted a grand Minneapolis church the title of “basilica.” It was the first church in the United States to receive the designation.

At a Feb. 1 Mass honoring the Basilica of St. Mary’s centennial, local Church leaders spoke about its architectural and liturgical beauty, but even more so about the church’s “living stones” who weren’t present in 1926: its parishioners.

“On this 100th anniversary of the concession of the title of basilica to this magnificent church, let’s renew our commitment to being a community distinguished by reason of the piety of its worshipers, as well as by the splendor of its ritual and the richness of its adornment,” said Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis, presiding at the liturgy attended by more than 1,300 people. Those three attributes were given to the basilica by Pope Pius XI in bestowing the title.

“No matter how beautiful, no matter how stately, no matter how many honors are received, we, the faithful who gather here, always have to be welcoming to those who are humble and lowly,” Archbishop Hebda said of the basilica parish, known for its social outreach ministries.

(Note: Baltimore’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrated in 1821, is the first cathedral in the United States.)

Concelebrating the liturgy with Archbishop Hebda were Bishop Emeritus Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, and Bishop Michael J. Izen, along with the basilica’s pastor and rector Father Daniel Griffith, as well as former pastors and other clergy. The Mass included a reading of the 1926 proclamation, a centennial letter from Pope Leo XIV, and the introduction of a processional hymn commissioned for the event.

Carried in the procession was one of the marks of a basilica — a red and yellow paneled silk “ombrellino,” or small umbrella, that normally stands partially open in the Basilica of St. Mary’s sanctuary. A symbol of a basilica dating to the Middle Ages, the ombrellino would be opened fully to protect a pope from the elements were a pope to visit the basilica.

Also in the procession was a silver bell in a special frame which is rung when a pope arrives. No pope has yet visited the Basilica of St. Mary, which as a parish traces its roots to 1868.

That year, Catholics in Minneapolis gathered for Mass at a wooden church for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. According to parish history, that was the first Minneapolis-area church west of the Mississippi. Five years later, the growing parish constructed a limestone church on the same lot.

In 1903, Archbishop John Ireland proposed to parishioners the construction of a “pro-cathedral” — a provisional or acting cathedral — in Minneapolis that would have similar stature to the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, which at that time was under construction.

The new structure planned by Archbishop Ireland was in the Beaux Arts architectural style of a Roman basilica. It was designed by French architect Emmanuel Masqueray, who also designed the Cathedral of St. Paul and other buildings in the Twin Cities and wider midwest. The cornerstone was laid at the current 16th Street and Hennepin Avenue site during a ceremony that drew 20,000 people.

The church was solemnly dedicated on Aug. 15, 1915, the feast of the Assumption.

Msgr. James Reardon became pastor in 1921. During his more than 40-year tenure, he oversaw decoration of the building’s interior and petitioned Pope Pius XI, with the support of Archbishop Austin Dowling — who led the then-Archdiocese of St. Paul from 1919 to 1930 — that the church be designated the first U.S. basilica.

The Holy Father conferred on the Pro-Cathedral of St. Mary the title minor basilica “by reason of the piety of its worshippers as well as by the splendor of its ritual and the richness of its adornment,” wrote Johan van Parys, the Basilica of St Mary’s managing director of ministries and its director of liturgy and sacred arts, in an article on the parish website.

Derived from the Greek word “basilik,” meaning “hall of the king,” a basilica originally was a spacious building used for large gatherings during the Roman Empire, van Parys wrote.

Architecturally, a basilica is rectangular with a half-circle apse on one or both of its short ends. A basilica has a center aisle and two side aisles with lower roofs as well as large windows above the side aisles.

Currently there are 94 minor basilicas in the United States, according to gcatholic.org, and more than 1,700 worldwide. There are also four major basilicas: St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, and St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

Among the privileges of the basilica designation is an attachment to the papal household and the right to use the papal coat of arms. The Basilica of St. Mary also has its own coat of arms.

In 1966, St. Paul VI changed the name of the Archdiocese of St. Paul to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and elevated the Basilica of St. Mary to the archdiocese’s co-cathedral.

The basilica’s centennial year happens to coincide with the national celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.

The centennial celebration is noteworthy, Father Griffith said at the end of the Mass. He also reminded the congregation of current challenges at the parish, including an ongoing major restoration project, as well as addressing the needs of immigrants fearing deportation.

Minneapolis has been at the center of a large, ongoing federal immigration enforcement operation that has prompted international controversy in the wake of two agent-involved killings of citizen protestors.

We are “in the midst of a very, very challenging time here in the Twin Cities, including for our immigrant brothers and sisters who are living in fear,” he said. “So, we hold them up in prayer.”

“I, for one, as all of you do, look forward to the next 100 years, what God has in store,” he added. “Pastors and archbishops come and go, but this basilica remains.”

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