Whatever our beliefs, the Cathedral of St. Paul is in some way or another ours.
Graceful and imposing, the structure has been an orienting presence on the landscape, drawing locals and tourists of all faiths to its doors, for a century.
A yearlong centennial celebration included Sunday’s commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first Mass celebrated under the dome of the beloved “cathedral on the hill” — one of the so-called seven hills of the Saintly City.
On the hill — also known as St. Anthony Hill — “there’s no better site to put a monumental structure,” Twin Cities architecture expert Larry Millett said in a recent edition of the Catholic Spirit, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “The cathedral is much more visible in St. Paul than the Capitol.”
It was “designed as a monumental, muscular display of faith,” said Millett, also a former Pioneer Press reporter.
And so it remains.
