About Saint Benedict’s Cathedral in Evansville, Indiana:
St. Benedict Parish was established in 1912 under the pastoral care of the Benedictine Monks from St. Meinrad Abbey. The founding families set out immediately to gather on Sundays for Mass and to provide for the education of their children, guided by the efforts of the Benedictine Sisters of Ferdinand.
In 1913, construction was begun on a building that would house almost all the functions of the parish: a church, classrooms, housing for the Sisters, and a cafeteria. We now call this building St. Meinrad Hall. In short order, the founding pastor, Father Martin Hoppenjans, OSB, led the community in putting up a convent and a rectory. The present church building was completed in 1928 in the Lombard-Basilica style. It was dedicated March 18, 1928, by Abbot Athanasius Schmidt, OSB. The cathedral features ceilings that are 65 feet high, a baldachin over the altar and a seating capacity of over 900 people. A second school building, St. Scholastica Hall, including an auditorium, cafeteria, and gymnasium, was completed in 1953. The most recent construction, St. Benedict Hall, was completed in 2004 and houses offices, classrooms, and parish meeting rooms.
The church was renovated after the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The baldachin was moved forward about 25 feet and the former high altar was dismantled and the new altar was created. OK…..we know how many feel that these changes are a great step backward, this the reality we live with at the moment…..it may not always be so.
On October 21, 1944, Pope Pius XII established the Diocese of Evansville. Assumption Church, Evansville’s oldest Catholic parish, was chosen as the first cathedral. The property was sold to the city of Evansville who demolished it in 1965 for the new civic center. Holy Trinity, Evansville’s second oldest parish, served as the Pro-cathedral from 1965 to April 11, 1999, when St. Benedict’s was consecrated as the third cathedral for the Evansville Dioces
In September 1912, Benedictine Father Martin Hoppenjans of Saint Meinrad Archabbey was assigned to be the founding pastor of the soon-to-be-established St. Benedict Parish in Evansville. Father Martin arrived in Evansville on Nov. 6, 1912, and took up residence in the guest house of the Poor Clare Monastery on Kentucky Avenue. Bishop Joseph Chartrand of Indianapolis established the new parish on Dec. 1, 1912.
Without a church to call home, the parish began meeting for Mass on the public side of the Poor Clare Monastery chapel. The tabernacle now in St. Benedict Cathedral is the tabernacle that was in the monastery chapel.
After the Poor Clares moved to Evansville’s west side, historical and anecdotal evidence reveals that the tabernacle from the monastery chapel made its way to a few Evansville parishes before ending up in possession of Knights of Columbus Council #7544. The Knights used the tabernacle in their council house on Willow Road for several years – until a water pipe burst and did enough damage to force demolition of the house.
Members of Council #7544 moved the tabernacle to the bell tower of St. Benedict Parish for storage. Following the decision to return the tabernacle to use in the renovated cathedral, the parish sent it to the F.C. Ziegler Co., in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for restoration. Ziegler’s fabricated the two-piece dome that now sits atop the tabernacle.
In discussing the fully restored tabernacle, Benedictine Father Godfrey Mullen, rector of the cathedral, said, “It’s a beautiful part of our first days as a parish and now a part of our future – always calling us to the real presence of the living Christ.” The restored tabernacle as in the chapel of the former Poor Clares Monastery on Kentucky Avenue, where members of St. Benedict Parish met for Mass for more than a year after St. Pope Pius X established the parish in December 1912. The Message photo by Jay Hamlin
Traveling to Saint Benedict’s Cathedral in Evansville, Indiana:
Address: 1328 Lincoln Avenue, Evansville, IN 47714
Tel: +1 (812) 425-3369
email: cathedral@evdio.org
Click here for the official website of Saint Benedict’s Cathedral in Evansville, Indiana (some great videos on their site)