Here at the National Shrine, you can find the story of Catholic American heritage illuminated throughout our art and architecture – from the establishment of the first parish to the ordination of the first U.S. priest. This month, as we celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States of America, we invite you to discover 10 historic moments in American Catholicism and how they are honored in the Basilica.
1. The first parish in the United States is established in 1565.
Concerned about encroachments by French Huguenots upon the Floridian coast, King Philip II of Spain sent one of his trusted captains to the New World in 1565 to exert Spain’s influence and found a new colony. Known as Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the captain set sail with his fleet of 11 ships in July and arrived in the New World on August 28. Upon his arrival, Menéndez de Avilés named the bay where they weighed anchor after St. Augustine. He immediately set his men to work erecting a fort, which became the location of the first parish in the United States.
2. The colony of Maryland is founded in 1634.
In the 1600s, Catholics in England faced persecution and discrimination; they were prohibited from voting or holding public office, and practicing Catholic priests could be subject to execution. Seeking a place of refuge for himself and other Catholics, a man named Cecilius Calvert obtained a charter for land in the New World in 1632. The founding expedition was led by his younger brother, Leonard, who arrived on St. Clements Island in 1634, and subsequently established the first settlement and capital in St. Mary’s City.
3. Fr. Stephen Theodore Badin is the first priest ordained in the United States in 1793.
On July 17, 1768, Stephen Theodore Badin was born in Orleans, France. After studying at Montaigu College in Paris, Badin attended the Sulpician Seminary in Orleans for two years until the school closed during the French Revolution in 1791. That November, he sailed to America with four other men, with the goal of serving as a priest in the young country. They landed in Philadelphia in March of 1792, and within a year, Badin finished his theological training at a newly established seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. On May 25, 1793, shortly before his 25th birthday, Badin became the first priest to be ordained in the United States and was soon sent to serve at the mission in Kentucky.
4. The bishops of the United States name Mary, under her title the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the United States in 1846.
At the Sixth Provincial Council at Baltimore, American bishops designated the Blessed Virgin Mary patroness of the United States under her title the Immaculate Conception. The next year, in 1847, Pope Pius IX granted the approval of the Holy See to this resolution.
Today, over 175 years later, the Basilica is proud to be dedicated to Mary, the Immaculate Conception, patroness of our nation.
5. John Carroll becomes the first Catholic bishop in the United States in 1789.
Born at Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in 1736, John Carroll was distantly related to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence. During his youth, John attended various Jesuit schools and later joined the Jesuit novitiate in 1753. In the years that followed, he took his vows, studied philosophy and theology at the English College in Liege, and was ordained in 1761.
On November 6, 1789, Baltimore was made the first diocese of the United States, and Carroll designated as its bishop; he was consecrated the following year. Throughout his career, he worked to further education and the building of new churches, founding Georgetown University in 1789. He is also the founder of the American Catholic hierarchy. In the Basilica, you can find him honored in a sacristy window in the Upper Church, and in a Memorial Hall tablet.
6. The first U.S. convent is founded in 1790.
In the spring of 1790, four Carmelite nuns from English-speaking communities in Belgium set sail for Maryland along with their chaplain. That summer, 10 days after their arrival, they established the first community of religious women in the United States on July 21, 1790. Today, the Mount Carmel Monastery continues to serve as a cloister for a tight-knit community of Carmelite nuns.
7. The first American citizen is canonized in 1946.
In 1946, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini became the first American citizen to be canonized. Often referred to as the mother of women’s missions, Cabrini felt called to be a missionary from an early age. As a young girl in Italy, she would dress her dolls as nuns and send them down the river in boats as “missionaries.” She went on to found the first institute for female missionaries, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and when she was 30, immigrated to New York City with six of her missionary sisters to found orphanages. In her lifetime, Frances traversed the ocean 39 times, founding over 60 missions across Europe and the Americas.
8. Pope Paul VI makes the first papal visit to the U.S. in 1965.
That wasn’t his only trip that made history! He also was the first pope to institute the practice of Apostolic Journeys. Over the course of his reign, he took nine international trips, made the first papal trip to the continent of Asia, and became the first reigning pope to travel by airplane.
9. Pope Francis presides over the first canonization to ever take place on U.S. soil in 2015 – at the National Shrine!
On September 23, 2015, Pope Francis presided over the Canonization Mass of Junípero Serra on the Basilica’s east portico, which had been transformed into a beautiful sanctuary for the occasion. A congregation of 25,000 faithful from across the United States, including a contingent of Native Americans from California, were in attendance.
10. Pope Leo XIV becomes the first U.S.-born pope in 2025.
Pope Francis made history by becoming the first pope from the Americas; Pope Leo XIV marked another historic milestone by becoming the first pontiff born in the United States, hailing from Chicago. His parents, Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martínez, are of French-Italian descent and Spanish descent, respectively.
Sources:
“Carmelite nuns add something new to oldest U.S. monastery,” Our Sunday Visitor.
“History of Our Community,” Baltimore Carmel.
“John Carroll (1735-1815): Founder of Georgetown College: Timeline,” Georgetown University Library.
“Most Rev. John Carroll,” Archdiocese of Baltimore.
“Our History,” Georgetown University.
“Penal Laws,” Britannica.
“Provincial Councils of Baltimore,” New Advent.
“Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” Office of Inspector General.
“The colony of Maryland,” Britannica.
