“From the Archives” — The Diocese of Richmond

In 1808, Catholics in the United States were formally organized under the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Four suffragan (subordinate) dioceses also were created: Boston, Bardstown (Kentucky), Philadelphia and New York. Since it was part of the District of Columbia between 1789 and 1847, Alexandria remained in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the first of three dioceses of which the city has been a part, until 1858. In 1820, Pope Pius VII established the Diocese of Richmond, encompassing all of Virginia, including the area that later became West Virginia. Very few Catholics lived within this large territory, in some ways due to the legacy of anti-Catholic legislation in colonial Virginia.

Church records dated 1794 show the lay trustees of a small Catholic community in Norfolk, Virginia, owned a parcel of land for religious purposes. But no church had been built there due to dissension in the parish. Troubles continued for years, with the trustees rebelling against their pastor. In 1820, the pope consecrated as the first Bishop of Richmond Father Patrick Kelly, president of Saint John’s Seminary, County Kilkenny, Ireland. Upon his arrival at Norfolk in 1821, Bishop Kelly found the Catholic community in such disarray it could not pay his living expenses, compelling him to teach school to support himself! Before proceeding to Richmond to establish his new diocese, he tried to reconcile differences and stabilize the parish in Norfolk. Discouraged, after less than a year, Bishop Kelly requested and received permission to return to Ireland. He left without ever visiting his post in Richmond.

A periodic look at the history of our Basilica of Saint Mary parish since its founding in 1795 The Diocese of Richmond was placed back under the Archdiocese of Baltimore for the next 20 years. In 1841, Pope Gregory XVI appointed the second Bishop of Richmond, 32-year-old Baltimore native Richard Vincent Whelan, who had served as a priest in Virginia. When Bishop Whelan arrived to tour his diocese, he found a growing Catholic community. In 1850, he was transferred to the new Diocese of Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), and was replaced in Richmond by Bishop John McGill.

Although Alexandria and Arlington were retroceded from the District of Columbia to Virginia in 1847, Saint Mary parish was not placed in the Diocese of Richmond until 1858. Our parish then remained part of the Diocese of Richmond until 1974, when the Diocese of Arlington was created in response to the tremendous growth in the number of Catholics living in Northern Virginia.

— Kitty Guy, Parish Historian