Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Lagos


The Cathedral of the Holy Cross serves the Catholic archdiocese of Lagos, Nigeria.

History

The first cathedral building was inaugurated in 1881 and built by stonemasons and architects Lazarus Borges da Silva and Francisco Nobre. After the death of Bishop Ferdinand Terrien in 1929, this original cathedral saw the ordination of the first three Yoruba priests, the late monsignors Lawrence Layode, Julius Onih, and Stephen Adewuyi, by Bishop Thomas Brodericks, the apostolic vicar of Western Nigeria. By the 1930s a larger cathedral was needed, and the older one was demolished. The current church building, of French Gothic style architecture, had its foundation stone laid on 6 August 1934 by Bishop Francis O'Rourke and was completed in 1939.
On 18 April 1950, the apostolic vicariate of Lagos was elevated to metropolitan archdiocese in accordance with the papal bull entitled Laeto accepimus, issued by Pope Pius XII.
By year-end 2016, the archdiocese counted 3,274,000 baptized out of a total population of 12,276,000 which corresponds to 26.7% of the total.

Succession of pastors


Gallery