I made a brief stop today in Bardstown, Kentucky. Those of you in the South and Midwest might know of the importance of this area to American Catholicism, but it might be a surprise to others. We’re used to thinking of the beginnings of Catholicism in the United States (not the Americas in general) in association with the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic – New York, Boston, Baltimore.
But…Kentucky?
Yup.
In 1808, four new dioceses were created from Baltimore, which had been the new country’s single diocese up to that point. Those were: New York, Philadelphia, Boston and….Bardstown, Kentucky.
Bardstown was the center of the only see west of the Alleghenies mostly because a lot of Catholics had settled in the area.
The Howards had no children, and the farm was willed to the Catholic Church when Thomas died in 1810. Thomas’s will stipulated that the church received ownership of the land upon his death, but that his wife was to remain on the property and be cared for until she remarried or died.
Pope Pius VII created the Diocese of Bardstown in 1808 along with the dioceses of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. All four dioceses were created out of territory of the original diocese of Baltimore. The French Sulpician priest Benedict Joseph Flaget was appointed the first bishop of Bardstown, arriving in Kentucky in June 1811. When he arrived in Bardstown, Bishop Flaget chose the Howard farm as the site for the beginnings of Catholicism in Bardstown.
Bishop Flaget moved the seat of the diocese from Bardstown to Louisville in 1841. In 1937, the Diocese of Louisville was elevated to an archdiocese. The original territory for which Bishop Flaget had pastoral responsibility is now part of over forty dioceses and archdioceses, including Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Detroit.
I didn’t have a lot of time, but I did have enough to stop by two landmarks:
St. Thomas Parish church, the diocese’s first:
It’s in a rural area outside of Bardstown. It’s to the left rear in the picture below. Interesting to think of it as the center of Catholic life in the area.
As you’ll see below, embedding Scripture quotes in the exterior in this way was the thing to do.
(The church was locked, which I didn’t complain about. It’s an historic edifice, and if there was no one around to safeguard, it makes sense to lock it. What I do complain about is the complete lack of signage indicating the building’s historical background and importance. I mean – nothing. Nada.)
And then the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral.
It’s the oldest cathedral west of the Alleghenies.
St. Joseph is the first Cathedral west of the Allegheny Mountains and is listed by the U.S. Library of Congress as a national landmark possessing exceptional interest and worthy of careful preservation. Having been sufficiently completed in 1819, for services to be held, it stood in the Kentucky wilderness as a monument to the faith, toil, and zeal, of the French priest, Benedict Joseph Flaget, who became the Bishop of the Diocese of Bardstown, and to the families of the area both Catholic and Protestant. It truly became a consecrated sanctuary, a work of many human hands!
This historic edifice contains fine paintings and other gifts from Europe donated by Pope Leo XII, Francis I, King of the Two Sicilies, and King Louis Phillippe of France, just to name of few.
It’s in that Federal style common to churches of this era. A classical, simple interior with some paintings of the period, as indicated above, but also some painted wall medallions that are much more recent and….just a little cheesy-looking.
Next to that – the narthex – sorry about your lack of a “gathering space”
But at least there was an attempt to share the history of the place – although the pamphlet could use more detail about the paintings and stained glass, for example.
There’s a ton of Catholic history in this area – including, quite essentially, women’s religious orders and of course the Abbey of Gethsemani. I’ve been to the latter a few times, but not for many years. I’m going to try to stop by tomorrow on my way back.
Charlotte was Both 
Did you visit the abbey?
Sunday
Ha that’s wild. I was in Bardstown on Friday, visiting some of same places (like the Proto-Cathedral).
The diocese also included Tennessee and Cahokia Illinois and Vincennes Indiana which was responsible for starting the University of Notre Dame. The diocese was basically all the territory of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. And the priests covered it on horseback or on foot, going to some parts that had a fair number of Catholics like formerly French towns frequently and a lot less in some places where there weren’t that many Catholics like Tennessee.
The Xaverian Brothers, who taught in my high school, had a lot of activity in Kentucky in the XIX cent. and they grew and moved with the major immigration population concentrations. Most dispensed with habit wearing and large community life and leaned a bit liberal, but they were some of the few real Christians I have ever met personally. They were “teaching machines” with a solid understanding of the young male psyche. This kind of vocation is practically extinct, except in Africa.