Sacred Heart Church is a

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

located on

Hillsborough Street Hillsborough Street is a business and cultural thoroughfare through Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. The street serves as a center for social life among North Carolina State University and Meredith College students. ...

in downtown

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

, United States. The church served as the

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

of the

Diocese of Raleigh The Diocese of Raleigh () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church that covers eastern North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archbis ...

from 1924 to 2017. In 1978 it, and the other parish buildings, was included as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

in the

Capitol Area Historic District The Capitol Area Historic District is a national historic district located at Raleigh, North Carolina. The district encompasses 25 contributing buildings and was developed after 1792. The district includes notable examples of Classical Revival ...

, which is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Sacred Heart is also the location of the Cathedral School, formally called Sacred Heart Cathedral School.

History

Sacred Heart Church Raleigh interior 2017

Sacred Heart Parish was established in 1879. Ground was broken for the present church building in 1922, and it was completed two years later. Later in 1924 the Apostolic Vicariate of North Carolina was elevated to the Diocese of Raleigh, and Sacred Heart Church became the diocesan cathedral.

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

was the last state to have a diocese established within it, and Catholics were small in number. The

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

, which sits behind the church, was completed in 1917, the

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

that housed Dominican sisters was completed in 1927, and the school building was completed in 1938. While the buildings in the complex differ in style, they each feature irregular rough hewn

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone with raised mortar joints. The church building itself is rather simple in its design. It features

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

elements, such as pointed arches,

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s, mock

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es, and a corner tower with a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

. There is a statue of the

Sacred Heart of Jesus The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

above the main entrance. With seating for about 300 people, Sacred Heart had become the smallest Roman Catholic cathedral in the continental United States and the second smallest in the country. Due to the church's size, eleven Masses were necessary per weekend to accommodate all of the attendees. In 2011, Bishop

Michael F. Burbidge Michael Francis Burbidge (born June 16, 1957) is an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who has served as Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Bishop of Arlington since 2016. He previously served as an auxiliary bis ...

announced the construction of a new cathedral to replace Sacred Heart, which could no longer accommodate the growing parish and diocese. Fund-raising began in September of that year for the new facility, and it is located on the where the diocesan offices and Cardinal Gibbons High School were formerly located. Groundbreaking for the new Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral took place January 3, 2015. Built for $41 million and seating 2,000 people, the new cathedral was dedicated on July 26, 2017. Sacred Heart continues to be used for daily Mass, weddings, and funerals but no longer holds Sunday Mass.

School

Cathedral School is a Pre-K through eighth-grade school located next to Sacred Heart Church. The school was established in 1909 and educates young Catholics and prepares them for High School. Cathedral School feeds into Cardinal Gibbons High School. Cardinal Gibbons High School had originally been at Sacred Heart Cathedral and was called Sacred Heart High School and then Cathedral Latin High School. In 2007, Cathedral School received a National Blue Ribbon of Excellence Award. The Cathedral School will move to the new cathedral site when complete.

Gallery

File:Sacred Heart Cathedral - Raleigh 09.JPG, Rectory File:Sacred Heart Cathedral - Raleigh 10.JPG, Convent File:Sacred Heart Cathedral - Raleigh 05.JPG, Sacred Heart statue above the main entrance. File:Our Lady of North Carolina.JPG, Statue of Our Lady of North Carolina at the front of the school. File:Sacred Heart Cathedral - Raleigh 08.JPG, Grave of Msgr. Thomas P. Griffin who built the church and founded the school.

References

External links

Official website
{{Wake county middle schools Religious organizations established in 1879 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1924 Roman Catholic churches in Raleigh, North Carolina Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh Gothic Revival church buildings in North Carolina Private schools in Raleigh, North Carolina Catholic elementary schools in North Carolina Roman Catholic cathedrals in North Carolina Former cathedrals in the United States Historic district contributing properties in North Carolina Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States