Art & Architecture
The Cathedral of Saint Paul has been in existence, in various buildings, since 1841. But it was Archbishop John Ireland, the renowned shepherd of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul, who helped bring to life the vision of a permanent mother church for Minnesota in 1904. In 1905, Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, a French architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, was selected to design what we know today as the fourth Cathedral of Saint Paul. Masqueray's devotion to the Catholic faith and his warm, personal relationship with Archbishop Ireland made him uniquely suited to the task. Ireland and his building committee wanted to create a structure that would stand for centuries. The new Cathedral needed to be "a modern building, perfect in its acoustics, in its sanitary, ventilating, heating and other details," according to a peer of Masqueray. Thus was the task of Masqueray and the many designers, craftsman, laborers, clergy and laypeople who worked on this structure.