History of St. Mary's

St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows is a Nashville landmark and one of the first Catholic Church buildings constructed in Tennessee. The church served as the second Cathedral of the Diocese of Nashville from 1847-1914. The oldest extant church building in downtown Nashville, St. Mary Church dates to 1844-47. Its architect was Adolphus Heiman, a German immigrant who designed several major Nashville buildings, including the State Asylum, during the late antebellum era. Heiman chose a Greek Revival temple style for St. Mary, which features a gable front entrance of two fluted Ionic columns supporting a classical pediment.   Richard Pius Miles, O.P. (1791-1860), the first Catholic Bishop of Nashville, is primarily responsible for the construction of St. Mary Church. Consecrated bishop at Bardstown, Kentucky in 1838, Miles arrived in Nashville that same year and was the only Catholic priest in the state of Tennessee. He led the state’s growing Catholic population until his death in 1860, when he was buried beneath the cathedral.

In 1926 the Nashville firm of Asmus & Clark renovated both the exterior and interior of St. Mary, finishing the west facade in local limestone and altering the original octagonal belfry. In 1972 the congregation moved the cast iron casket of Bishop Miles to a small chapel in the church's northwest corner. St. Mary's celebrated its 165th anniversary in 2012.