





Pope Francis recently issued a decree granting the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah the title of Minor Basilica, the Rev. J. Gerald Schreck said in a press release on Wednesday, April 22.

The designation, made through the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, makes the Cathedral the first basilica in the Diocese of Savannah, said Schreck, who is rector at the Cathedral.

Nationwide, there are just 87 churches, including 18 cathedrals, that carry this designation.

The 143-year-old Roman Catholic Cathedral will officially be named “The Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist.”

Minor basilicas are traditionally named because of their antiquity, dignity, historical value, architectural and artistic worth, and significance as centers of worship. A basilica must “stand out as a center of active and pastoral liturgy,” according to a 1989 Vatican document.

The bestowal of the title initiates a very particular bond between the basilica and the Holy Father. Papal symbols signifying the relationship will be installed and blessed at an inaugural Mass solemnizing the designation of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist as a basilica later this year.

Cathedral history

Savannah’s first Catholic church, called Saint John the Baptist, was constructed on Montgomery Street in about 1799-1800, according to reports in the Savannah Morning News.

In 1850, Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Savannah. St. John the Baptist Church was enlarged and called the Cathedral.

In the 1870s, the diocese took a dramatic step forward with the construction of a bold, new Cathedral. The land was purchased in 1870, the cornerstone was laid in 1873, and the building was dedicated in 1876. The finishing touches, the 207-foot-high steeples that rise far above Lafayette Square, were completed in 1896.

Almost before the city and the congregation could celebrate the new home, a fire in 1898 destroyed everything except the outside walls, the spires and the steeples.

The congregation immediately started to rebuild. On Dec. 24, 1899, the first Mass was held in the reconstructed Cathedral.

In 2000, the 150th anniversary of the diocese, an $11 million project directed by then-Bishop J. Kevin Boland and the Rev. William O’Neill, the Cathedral’s rector who Boland chose to oversee the project, rejuvenated the Cathedral inside and out. Its 24 circa-1912 murals were restored to their original glory, and the Stations of the Cross were returned to their original polychromatic tones.