St. Mary's Cathedral, Jaffna

St. Mary's Cathedral
Jaffna Cathedral
புனித மரியா தலைமைக் கோயில்
St. Mary's Cathedral
Location within Northern Province
09°39′22.10″N 80°01′21.90″E / 9.6561389°N 80.0227500°E / 9.6561389; 80.0227500Coordinates: 09°39′22.10″N 80°01′21.90″E / 9.6561389°N 80.0227500°E / 9.6561389; 80.0227500
Location Jaffna
Country Sri Lanka
Denomination Roman Catholic
History
Former name(s) St. Mary's Church
Architecture
Status Cathedral
Functional status Active
Groundbreaking 1789
Completed 1794
Administration
Archdiocese Colombo
Diocese Jaffna
Clergy
Bishop(s) Justin Bernard Gnanapragasam
Priest(s) R. H. Sahayanayagam
Assistant priest(s)
  • Mac Donald
  • Patric OMI

St. Mary's Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaffna located in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.[1]

History

Construction of St. Mary's Church began in 1789 and was completed in 1794.[2] The first parish priest was Rev. Fr. Leonard Rebeiro.[2] The church was built on the site of a thatched house that had previously served as a worshipping place for Jaffna's Catholics.[3] By the early twentieth century the church, which was now a cathedral, had become too small to accommodate all its worshippers. Construction of a new cathedral began in 1939 but wasn't completed until 1975.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ "St. Mary's Cathedral, Jaffna, Sri Lanka". GCatholic.org.
  2. 1 2 Martyn 1923, p. 8.
  3. ↑ Martyn 1923, p. 155.
  4. ↑ "Cathedral". St. Mary's Cathedral.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.