Cathedral of Saint Patrick (Norwich, Connecticut)


The Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Norwich is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church located in Norwich, Connecticut. It is the mother church of the Diocese of Norwich and is the seat of its prelate bishop.

Parish history

In 1833, Father James Fitton celebrated the first Catholic mass in Norwich in a third floor loft with 12 people in attendance. By 1842, the first building in town to serve as a church was a shed in Twomeytown. A year later, Norwich became the jurisdiction of the newly erected Diocese of Hartford. St. Mary was the first small church in Norwich, dedicated in March 1845. It was enlarged in 1858.
St. Mary's parish continued to grow into the late 1860s, when Father James Mullen decided that a new church was needed, and architect James Murphy of Providence, Rhode Island, was selected to design it. The cornerstone of the church was laid on July 13, 1873, and St. Patrick's parish was incorporated in 1878. The formal opening and dedication for the new church was held on September 28, 1879. St. Mary's church was closed later that year.
In 1953, the Diocese of Norwich was created as a suffragan to the Archdiocese of Hartford, and St. Patrick's Church became the cathedral for the new diocese. The Most Reverend Bernard J. Flanagan, then Chancellor of the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, was appointed the first Bishop of Norwich by Pope Pius XII. He was installed on December 9, 1953.