Roamin' Catholic: Cathedral of St. John the Baptist - Charleston, SC

While on vacation at home, I ventured down to my old stomping grounds - Charleston, SC - where I visited the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (the seat of the Diocese of Charleston).

Entry way - Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Charleston, SC

My freshman year of college (when I wasn't allowed to have a car at the College of Charleston) I would walk a little over half mile on Sunday mornings to attend Mass there. It was gorgeous.

View of the Sanctuary in the Cathedral

The Cathedral in Charleston has been through quite a lot. Being on a peninsula, it's weathered many hurricanes, most notably/recently Hurricane Hugo, which devastated the coastal regions of SC in 1989. But Charleston also has had its fair share of fires. The land on which the Cathedral sits was purchased by the Diocese in 1821, and the first Cathedral was dedicated in 1850. In 1861, a nearby warehouse fire destroyed the building (and much of Charleston), so the current structure's cornerstone was laid in 1890 on the foundation of the first Church. (Why the delay?? ...read on!)

The bottom half of the Cathedral.. it's too big to get in one shot!

My favorite story about Charleston's Cathedral, however, is about it's spire, which was FINALLY finished in the Spring of 2010. The Cathedral was always supposed to have a spire, despite the fire and hurricane. Plans were made for the spire to go up, but "that war" happened..  you know, the Civil War (1861-1865). "That" war, coupled with the terrible fire in 1861, made money scarce. I'm not sure why it took 100+ years after "that" war for the spire to go up... but it finally did, making the Cathedral an even more majestic fixture on the Charleston peninsula.

The top half - including the spire!

Here's a look-see at the interior of the Upper Church...

The Bishop's Chair

Diocesan Seal, Altar of Sacrifice (with SWEET altar linens and Benedictine arrangement), and the High Altar

The High Altar

Full view of the Sanctuary with the Bishop's Chair to the left

And of the Lower Church (where Daily Masses are held)...

Quaint Lower Church

Altar of Sacrifice, flanked by our Lady on the left and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Image on the right, Tabernacle in the center

The Cathedral's website is user-friendly, offering Mass schedules, the weekly bulletin, and a link to the Bishop's profile on the Diocesan website. After clicking around to see what else was hidden further within the site, I've found that the Young Adults group has a blog listed under the Ministries tab, while the Music Ministry has a separate web page linked there.

Father Gregory Wilson (an awesome young priest) is the Rector Pro-tem at the Cathedral. He has a fan page on Facebook, but it isn't linked to the Cathedral webpage (probably because it's not official!). The Web 2.0 offerings for the Cathedral are few and far between besides these listed, and they're not readily accessible for the leisurely web-browser. Perhaps making some Web 2.0 interfaces more readily available would help this Traditional Catholic community thrive even more!

+JMJ+