St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral

In 1853 Pope Pius IX separated the Upper Peninsula from the Diocese of Detroit and established a vicariate apostolic. Reverend Frederic Baraga, a missionary from L’Anse, became vicar apostolic and made St. Mary’s Church his headquarters. In 1857 the vicariate became a diocese, Baraga was named “Bishop of the Sault,” and the log church known as St. Mary’s became a cathedral. With the onset of mining, settlements sprang up in the western Upper Peninsula. Faced with the task of serving these remote parishes, Bishop Baraga obtained the pope’s permission to move the seat of the diocese to Marquette. In May 1866 Baraga left St. Mary’s and the parish became the pro-cathedral parish. In 1881 the present Gothic Revival-style church, designed by Joseph Connolly of Toronto, was erected.