St. Paul's Co-Cathedral is a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of the

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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 ...

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

and co-cathedral of the Diocese of Saskatoon. Its small size prevents it from operating as a cathedral. On 24 June 2021 and 2 July 2021 it was vandalized in protest of the discovery of unmarked graves connected to the Merieval Indian Residential School.

History

The Co-Cathedral is located in the city's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

at the corner of 22nd Street East and Spadina Crescent, on the west bank of the

South Saskatchewan River The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The river begins at the confluence of the Bow River, Bow and Oldman Rivers in southern Alberta and ends at the Saskatchewan River Forks in ce ...

. The cornerstone of St. Paul's was laid on July 25, 1910, by Canadian Prime Minister

Sir Wilfrid Laurier Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier (November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and Liberal politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime min ...

and a year later it was formally consecrated by Archbishop Adelard Langevin of St. Boniface, Manitoba. Originally built as parish church, it became a pro-cathedral in 1921, and elevated to a full cathedral in 1934 when the Diocese of Saskatoon was established. The Casavant organ was installed in 1912. The Institute for Stained Glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at St Paul's Cathedral. The stained glass was added in 1945 to commemorate those who lost their lives in World War II and in 1976 for those that lost their lives to a fire. 2024 08 26 IMG 7570

Due to its small size and lack of space to expand, the building had been unable to effectively function as a cathedral since the mid-1990s. On December 18, 2011, the new Holy Family Cathedral was opened, and St. Paul's became a

co-cathedral A co-cathedral is a cathedral church which shares the function of being a bishop's seat, or ''cathedra'', with another cathedral, often in another city (usually a former see, anchor city of the metropolitan area or the civil capital). Instances o ...

and continued to function as a local parish. In 2019, two paintings of Sts. Peter and Paul by German religious artist Berthold Imhoff were acquired from the church of St. Andrew's in Blaine Lake, which was being decommissioned. Unveiled on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, they remain on display in the sanctuary.

Unmarked Graves Protest

On June 24, 2021, Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme announced the discovery of 751 unmarked graves near the Merieval Indian Residential School which included the graves of

first nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

children forcefully interned in the Residential School. That same day St. Paul's Co-Cathedral was vandalized with the phrase "We were children" accompanied by hand prints both in red paint. The red paint was later washed off. Police have said that 2 individuals applied the paint to the Co-Cathedral during a demonstration in front of the building. On July 2, 2021 the Co-Cathedral was vandalized with red hand prints again in response to the discovery of over 1,000 unmarked graves found at Residential Schools.

References

External links

* Roman Catholic cathedrals in Saskatchewan Churches in Saskatoon Roman Catholic churches completed in 1911 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Canada Christian organizations established in 1910 {{Canada-RC-cathedral-stub