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From an "old and very clumsy building," as described
by Bishop Thomas A. Becker, first Ordinary of the Diocese of Wilmington,
the Cathedral of St. Peter has evolved over the years to become a "jewel"
among churches in the diocese.
Beginning in the mid-1700s, the Wilmington area was one of many stations
on an itinerant ministry conducted by Jesuit, Franciscan and Augustinian
priests, successively, traveling on horseback from Philadelphia or
Maryland.
Parish baptismal records date back to 1796 and are written in
French since many of the Catholics were French refugees who fled a 1795
revolution in the Dominican Republic. Because of a cholera epidemic in
Philadelphia, the refugees made their home in Wilmington amidst the Irish
community who worked mainly on the duPont farms or at the powder mills
along the Brandywine River.
In 1804, Irish-born Father Patrick Kenny, disembarked at Wilmington and
began a 36-year ministry for Catholics at five stations and one church in
Pennsylvania and Delaware. He lived at Coffee Run, where there was a
little log chapel, St. Mary of the Assumption, built on land that was
bought by the Jesuits in 1772. Among his small congregation were Mrs.
Victor duPont (Gabrielle Josephine de PeIleport) and her children.
On his way to Philadelphia Oct. 7, 1816, Father Kenny stopped in
Wilmington for a meeting at the home of Paul McGinnis to discuss plans for
a church in Wilmington. Land for the church, at the corner of Hanover
(Sixth) and West streets, was leased from the estate of Martha Whitelock
in 1816 to Tom Larkin, Patrick Higgins and Arthur Murphy for 100 years at
$30 per annum.
Pierre Bauduy, a French refugee who also designed the Wilmington town
hall, was hired as architect, and the corner stone was laid in 1816.
Father Kenny dedicated the 30- by 40-foot brick, tin-roofed church to St.
Peter on Sept. 12, 1818, at 6 a.m. and celebrated the "first
congregational Mass in Wilmington for a vast concourse" the following day.
A primary concern of
the board of trustees, which was formally organized in 1820, was the
frequency of Mass. Board members often threatened to reduce Father Kenny's
stipend ($12) unless he cooperated with their demand for having Mass more
than twice a month. However, that goal wasn't reliazed until the
arrival of Father George A. Carrell in 1829.
As the
parish's first resident assistant curate, Father Carrell supervised an
extension of the church, making it 30 by 60 feet. At the same time,
a bell tower was installed with a memorial stone, which can be seen today,
noting the 1829 additions.
Father Carrell was
concerned about the many children whose parents were killed by explosions
at the duPont powder mills and those "who had Protestant teachers and were
brought up in ignorance of the religion of their parents." In 1830, the
Daughters of Charity from Emmitsburg, Md., answered his request to open a
school, the seventh mission of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton's community in
the United States.
The sisters lived in a small house at Third and West streets where they
conducted a school for dependent girls, St. Peter's Female Orphanage. By
1833, they were caring for 65 girls at the orphanage. Later, they moved to
a house left to the sisters by Father Kenny on the northwest corner of
Sixth and West streets. In 1840, the sisters opened a boarding school and,
a year later, a free academy for girls, which eventually became a
parochial school.
In 1836, Father Carrell
left Wilmington to join the Jesuits and, in 1853, was named bishop of the
Diocese of Covington, Ky. He was replaced by Father Patrick Reilly, who
became pastor when Father Kenny died in 1840.
Father Reilly
established a boys school at Fifth and West streets on land purchased from
the Whitelock estate, and opened St. Mary's College on Delaware Avenue
between Jefferson and Madison streets in 1842. The college closed in 1866
due to the loss of students during the Civil War, but the Sisters of the
Visitation reopened it two years later as a girls academy.
Once the parish gained
a cohesive identity, the board of trustees became more involved in
overseeing parish finances. A main source of income at that time was pew
rental, and the board deliberated often on ways to collect delinquent
fees, even requesting that the sisters pay $25 a year for the six pews
they used for the girls school.
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A school and
rectory were attached to St. Peter Church, 1854-1926 |
In
1852, a new school and rectory were built on either side of the church,
and a cemetery at Twelfth and Madison streets was consecrated. From its
earliest years, a graveyard was part of the church complex. Recent
excavations have shown that, when additions were made on the church,
construction was done over existing graves. Old tombstones in the courtyard and church basement bear Irish names and legends telling of origins
and poignant events, such as "Native of Ireland...County of Armagh" and
"Lost his life in the Brandywine while bathing alone on the eve of July
22, 1817."
Wilmington was part of the Philadelphia Diocese until 1868 when Pope Pius
IX established a new diocese, encompassing Delaware and the Eastern Shore
counties of Maryland and Virginia. The Rev. Thomas A. Becker was named
first bishop of the Wilmington Diocese and headed the See until being
appointed to the Diocese of Savannah, Ga., in 1886.
St. Peter's had been refurbished by Father Matthew McGrane before Bishop
Becker's installation, but in 1876 Bishop Becker requested that the
sanctuary and sacristy be enlarged.
Besides that addition, extensive remodeling was undertaken between 1870
and 1905. Improvements included frescoes, marble baptistry, three marble
altars, chancel railing, bishop's throne, and a barrel-domed roof.
Stained-glass windows,
believed to be the work of Franz Xavier Zettler, master glass painter to
the Royal Court of Bavaria, were installed.
When
the refurbishing was completed, the parish prepared for the church's
consecration as a cathedral in 1905. Wilmington civic and church
dignitaries were on hand at the train station to greet the apostolic
pro-nuncio on his arrival. However, when he saw that the church was conjoined with the rectory and school, he refused to designate it a cathedral
(a cathedral must be free-standing and debt free), so it was given the
designation of pro-cathedral.
One
impediment was eliminated in 1926 when the transepts were lengthened. The
rectory was relocated south of the church and a parochial school for both
boys and girls was built at the corner of Sixth and Tatnall streets.
In
1940, the orphanage on the northwest corner of Sixth and West streets was
razed and replaced by the sisters' convent. The orphanage was relocated
north of Wilmington and became known as Seton Villa.
When the cathedral was closed in 1981 due to structural damage in the
ceiling, major renovations also were undertaken in accordance with
liturgical guidelines of the Second Vatican Council. Something of the old,
however, was carried over into the new by using marble from the old altar in the
tabernacle altar and columns for the sacred oils. The church was blessed
by Bishop Thomas J. Mardaga following the renovations.
Through a bequest from a diocesan benefactor that a chapel to St. Michael
be built, the former sacristy was altered in 1988 to provide a chapel for
daily Mass.
During the past 10 years, the gallery Austin organ, which was built in
1919, has undergone three phases of renovation. The three-manual, 25-rank
organ has 1,532 pipes ranging from 16 feet to about the size of a pencil
in length. To achieve a classic tonal quality, ranks were replaced and
rescaled.
A custom-built chancel organ also was completed in 1988. The two-manual,
pipe organ was converted from an electronic organ and has the convenience
of being movable. In recent years, the cathedral has gained renown for
being a site of annual concerts.
In 1991, extensive structural renovation was deemed necessary, which
involved adding flying buttresses to fortify transept walls and to
strengthen interior columns. Twenty tons of the cathedral structure was
raised hydraulically (one twelve-thousandth of an inch at a time) to
install a steel substructure for the pillars and choir loft. A
well-disguised portrait of Bishop Robert E. Mulvee was included when one
of the pillars was marbleized. During the repairs, the 1816 cornerstone
was moved to the West Street side of the church.
Through the years, German, Italian, African-American and Hispanic
immigrants have added to the colorful ethnic fabric of the parish. As the
surrounding neighborhood has changed from once large homes along West and
Washington streets to row townhouses, so the parish's ministry has
adapted to serve parishioners' needs, such as an outreach center, senior
center, meals on wheels, telephone reassurance, and the "Help-A-Student"
program.
Since 1830 the Daughters of Charity have been intimately related to the
spiritual, educational, and welfare life of the parish and its mission in
education, and care of the poor, homebound and elderly. The parish gave
Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton's community Wilmington roots and they have
extended these to the parish community life.
The metamorphosis of the Romanesque-style, block church from its once
secluded site, set back between the rectory and school, to its status as
the See cathedral has been a long, arduous journey. It is a journey,
however, of faith - the faith of countless parishioners who never counted
the cost too great in order to maintain the glory of their house of
worship.
Nothing so rich as this history could have occurred without those bishops
and priests whose dreams foresaw the bricks, mortar, plaster and dollars
to obtain them. Many others contributed to that dream, but some stand out,
such as the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities, the Laffey-McHugh
Foundation, the Catholic Diocese Foundation, and countless individuals.
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