The growth of the Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio:
The growth of Catholicism in Cleveland followed a pattern common to other industrial mid-western cities. Immigrants from Europe (German and especially Irish immigrants) who came in the late 1820s and 1830s to construct and maintain the OHIO & ERIE CANAL and to work in developing businesses. This helped the city grow in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but then began a gradual decline in population after World War II.
The city’s first permanent priest arrived in 1835; the first permanent Catholic church building, Saint Mary’s on the Flats, was dedicated in 1840. Cleveland became its own diocese in 1847 and encompassed the northern third of Ohio until the separation of the dioceses of Toledo and Youngstown.
Catholic churches and shrines in Cleveland, Ohio:
These are just a few of the many Catholic places of interest in Cleveland.
Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist
Poor Clares Perpetual Adoration Chapel
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church & Shrine (Latin Mass)
