Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament

The Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, both a parish church and a cathedral church, is the seat of the Archbishop of Detroit and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Detroit. As such, it is the “second parish” of the Catholic faithful in southeast Michigan.

In 1905, Bishop Foley authorized the construction of a new parish, named Most Blessed Sacrament, on land that was then outside the city limits, north of Grand Boulevard.

The Norman Gothic design for the church building was drawn by architect Henry A. Walsh, of Cleveland, Ohio. Construction on the church building began in 1913 and was completed in 1915. However, the interior of the church would not be complete until 1930. The church was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day 1930 at a solemn Mass celebrated by Bishop Gallagher. Detroit was elevated to an archdiocese in 1938 and on February 20, 1938, Most Blessed Sacrament Parish became the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament by decree of Pope Pius XI. The Vatican representative who came to Detroit to inspect the proposed cathedral on Woodward Avenue was Giovanni Battista Montini, later Blessed Pope Paul VI.