07/16/2026
Jasper Indiana Travelers enjoying our guided tour of the Basilica of St Joseph Proto-Cathedral.
This magnificent structure began with the laying of its cornerstone in July 1816. In 1811, Bishop Flaget arrived at Bardstown, traveling down the Ohio River by flatboat and overland from Louisville by wagon, accompanied by Fr. John David and three seminarians. Bishop Flaget was able to build a small brick church near Bardstown and a seminary, named St. Thomas. Soon he was consumed with the idea of erecting a cathedral of majestic proportions. Money and supplies were donated by Catholics and Protestants. St. Joseph is the first cathedral west of the Allegheny Mountains thus the Proto-cathedral.
Having been sufficiently completed in 1819 for services to be held, it rose in the Kentucky wilderness as a monument to the faith, toil, and zeal of the French priest, Benedict Joseph Flaget. This historic edifice contains fine paintings and other gifts donated by Charles X, King of France, Francis I, King of the Two Sicilies, and King Louis-Phillippe, Duke of Orleans, and later King of France. The Crucifixion is the only commissioned painting and is centered in the sanctuary. The current organ was preceded by two earlier ones. The steeple was added in 1823 along with the bell and clock.
Such a church in the wilderness is amazing since the arrival of a few Catholics in 1784 followed by Maryland Catholics with annual migrations to Kentucky which continued from 1785 until the war of 1812. In 1808, at the request of Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore, dioceses were created with sees at Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Bardstown. That of Bardstown included the states of Kentucky, Tennessee and the Entire Northwest Territory with a greater number of Catholics than of the other 3.
Architect and builder of the cathedral was John Rogers of Baltimore. Bricks were baked nearby, and poplar trees, hewn from the surrounding wilderness, were lathed in a circular pattern to form the stately columns inside and out. The foundation is limestone and is so solid that the walls have not cracked. When the Episcopal See was moved forty miles away to the fast-growing city of Louisville in 1841, St. Joseph’s became a parish church and its pastors continued as the president of its college and seminary.
On July 18, 2001 The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, by virtue of faculties granted by the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II conferred the title and dignity of Minor Basilica to our St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral.
