Sacred Heart Cathedral
ActiveCity of Rochester, Monroe County
Sacred Heart Cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of Rochester. The parish was founded in 1910 when Bishop Thomas F. Hickey recognized that recent immigration from Ireland, Italy, and Germany would require a new parish in northwest Rochester. He recruited Father George V. Burns to lead the new parish, who served until 1952.
The original church building opened in 1911 on the south side of Flower City Park and later became Sacred Heart School. The cornerstone for the current, more expansive church was laid in 1925, and the building was completed in 1927.
Sacred Heart's elevation to cathedral status came about through unusual circumstances. St. Patrick's, Rochester's first Catholic parish (founded in 1823), had served as the diocesan cathedral since 1868. When the Eastman Kodak Company, whose headquarters were adjacent to the cathedral property, sought to expand, the diocese sold St. Patrick's Cathedral to Kodak in 1937, and it was dismantled that same year. Sacred Heart was named the pro-cathedral at that time and became a full cathedral in 1952.
The diocese completed an extensive renovation of the cathedral in January 2005 at a cost of $11 million, updating the historic building for continued service to the Rochester Catholic community.
Exterior Photographs
Interior Photographs
Crests for the Bishops of Rochester
Angel statues along the rafters
Stations of the Cross
Stained Glass
Stained glass window above choir loft
Historical Photographs
