Once upon a time, Norwich had no Catholic churches because there were no Catholics in town. Today, there are seven Catholic churches, and it seems half the population is Catholic. The Irish, Polish, French-Canadians and the Italians all brought their faith to Norwich from their native lands.

First the Irish migrated to America to find work, and they built the Norwich and Worcester Railroad and Ponemah Mill. The Irish settled Greeneville and worked in the mills that were owned and operated by the man that the village was named after, William P. Greene.

The first Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Connecticut was St. Mary's built at the intersection of North Main Street and Central Avenue. It still stands today and is now a place of business known as Savage Supply.

When the time came to build another church, Father Daniel Mullin, Pastor of St. Mary's, purchased the site. The Irish of Greeneville marched, 1,700 strong on Good Friday, April 7, 1871, to it.

It was 133 years ago that the work on St. Patrick's Church began.

Led by Dr. Patrick Cassidy, they marched, men, women and children, on foot, on horseback, and in horse-drawn carts with picks and shovels, accompanied by the Norwich Civic Band.

On that Good Friday, they began to dig the foundation, and they worked until the foundation was dug and completed three days later, Easter Sunday. Father Shanan said the first Mass on a temporary altar on St. Patrick's Day 1879.

The history of St. Patrick's Cathedral is so representative of the struggle of the immigrants, not only the Irish but all immigrants who came to Norwich. They built their Gothic church, and it was paid for by all parishioners pledging 10 cents a week.

Today marks the 125^th anniversary of St. Patrick's, which is now a cathedral and the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich.

Until Monsignor Anthony Rosaforte became pastor, the pastors had been Irish, but there is no pastor that is more loved, nor has done more for the cathedral, than Father Tony, as he likes to be called.

He was preceded by Monsignor Michael May, the Rev. Alexander Mitchell and Monsignors John J. Reilly, Joseph V. King and James O'Brien. It was an Irish bishop, Daniel Patrick Reilly, who appointed Fat her Tony to the cathedral before Reilly was transferred to be shepard of the Diocese of Worcester, Mass.

At 10:30 a.m. today, there will be a Mass like few others that have ever been said at St. Patrick's. Three very special bishops will concelebrate Mass as former and present leaders of the diocese. They will celebrate the 125^th anniversary.

St. Patrick's today is a cathedral, and it was by the foresight of the early Catholics to build that gorgeous stone Gothic church that perhaps is the main reason that Norwich was selected by Rome to be the seat of the Diocese that oversees Eastern Connecticut.

Today, Bishop Reilly, Bishop Hart and Bishop Cote will be on the altar. Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan and Bishop Vincent J. Hines, now gone, were the first two bishops. Flanagan established the diocese. Hines gave birth to Catholic high school.

The history of Catholicism in Norwich doesn't start until the city was almost 200 years old. Imagine, when Norwich was founded in 1659, and for the 100 years before the American Revolution, there were no Catholics in Norwich at all.

We broke away from England and became a nation in 1781, fought the War of 1812, and still there were no Catholics in Norwich. It wasn't until 1824 that the first Catholic is recorded, an Irishman named Edward Murphy. He was one of 4,000 people in Norwich, and the only Catholic, but in the next 15 years, the population of Norwich would double. By the height of the potato famine in Ireland in the late 1840s, half of the city's population was Irish Catholic. They were builders, and so, of course, it was logical to expect that if they could build Ponemah Mill, they could also build a cathedral of the future.

The name, St. Patrick's Cathedral, is famous in American history because in New York City there is another St. Patrick's Cathedral. That is certainly bigger than Norwich's cathedral, but the love and toil of both are monuments to the immigrants' faith in their God and their church.

After Mass today, there will be a reception in the basement of the church, and all are invited. In fact, even the basement of that beautiful cathedral has a history as the Italian Masses, in the early 1900s, were said simultaneously in the basement where the Mass, of course, was in Latin - the universal language -- but the sermon upstairs was in English, and downstairs was in Italian.

It has been fairly said by Monsignor Tony, that the church belongs to the people, and it has been the Catholic people of Saint Patrick's Parish that have supported the church and so often renewed it. For example, in the great hurricane of '38, the church was badly damaged. Father Alexander Mitchell, with the people of the parish, restored the damaged church to its beautiful elegance.

From the first Catholic who dug the foundation by hand, to the majesty of Connecticut's St. Patrick's Cathedral, happy 125^th anniversary!

Originally published in the Norwich Bulletin, Sunday, September 26, 2004. Republished here by permision of the editor.