Sweet 116th Birthday
Today, the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is 116 years old. We give thanks to God for the countless blessings received in this edifice and parish for more than a century. The Collect (opening prayer) for today’s Mass provides beautiful words for rendering praise to the Lord:
O God, who year by year renew for us the day
when this your holy temple was consecrated,
hear the prayers of your people
and grant that in this place
for you there may always be pure worship
and for us, fullness of redemption.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
(Collect, Common of the Dedication of a Church, Ó The Roman Missal, 2010)
The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is the second cathedral church of Richmond. It was consecrated on Thanksgiving Day (November 29, 1906), by Most Rev. Diomedio Falconio, OFM, papal representative to the bishops of the United States. The date of dedication symbolized the compatibility of the Catholic faith and American society: one could be a devout Catholic and a patriotic American.
The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart was built during the tenure of Rt. Rev. Augustine van de Vyver, sixth bishop of Richmond (1889–1911). The generosity of one couple financed the construction of the church: Thomas Fortune Ryan (1851–1928) and his wife, Ida Mary Barry (1854–1917), donated $500,000 ($15 million today) for the project.
Originally, the title of the first cathedral of Richmond, “St. Peter’s,” was to transfer to the new cathedral, but Bishop Van de Vyver petitioned the Holy See to change the name to “Sacred Heart.” That title was meant to honor the name of the local parish that the new cathedral would absorb, and to promote devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Most Rev. John J. Keane, fifth bishop of Richmond (1878–1888), returned to the diocese to preach at the dedication of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. He declared in his sermon that,
The ministrations of divine truth and divine grace that shall hallow this sanctuary for all the future shall have... for their purpose, to draw all men... closer to the Heart of Christ, and thereby to draw them in fraternal charity closer to one another... May this twofold divine love be... a fountain of most precious blessings both for time and for eternity.