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Immaculate Conception Parish, located in LaGrange, Kentucky, serves more than 900 families with vibrant worship, service, preschool, school, religious education and outreach programs.

Saint Albert School in Louisville, Kentucky, serves 669 students in grades K-8.

 
Timeline

 Following is a timeline highlighting events throughout the history of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

(Click here to read a narrative history of the Archdiocese.)

EARLY HISTORY: 1775-1807

1775
The first Roman Catholics enter Kentucky at Fort Harrod.
1778 Louisville founded by General George Rogers Clark.
1785 Holy Cross Church is founded in Holy Cross, KY.
1787 Father Charles Maurice Whelan becomes the first missionary sent to Kentucky.
1793 Father Stephen Theodore Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States, arrives in the territory.
1800 Louisville’s population is 800 persons.
1805 Father Charles Nerinckx arrives in Kentucky.
1806 The Dominicans, under Father Edward Fenwick, OP, settle outside Springfield, KY.
1806 The first Catholic congregation is established by Father Badin in Louisville.

DIOCESE OF BARDSTOWN: 1808-1840

1808 Bardstown becomes an episcopal seat and Benedict J. Flaget, a Sulpician, is appointed its first Bishop.
1811 Bishop Flaget arrives in Bardstown.
1811 Father John B. David, a Sulpician who arrived with Bishop Flaget, erects a log seminary outside Bardstown and names it St. Thomas Seminary after the donor of the land, Thomas Howard.
1811  Guy Chabrat, a product of St. Thomas Seminary, becomes the first priest ordained west of the Alleghenies.
1812 The Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross, the first distinctly American Sisterhood, are co-founded by Father Charles Nerinckx, Mother Mary Rhodes, S.L., and other Kentucky women.
1812 The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth are co-founded by Father John B. David and Mother Catherine Spalding, S.C.N.
1819 The Cathedral of St. Joseph in Bardstown is completed and consecrated.
1819 Bethlehem Academy is created by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and will become Bethlehem High School in Bardstown.
1821 St. Mary’s College is established outside Lebanon, KY, by Father William Byrne.
1822 The Sisters of Saint Dominic are founded by Rev. Samuel T. Wilson, O.P., and Mother Angela Sansbury, O.P., is elected the first Prioress as well as being the Foundress of the Dominican Sisters in the United States.
1831  Presentation Academy, Louisville’s oldest continuous school, is established by Mother Catherine Spalding of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
1832  St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum for girls, the oldest of the charitable houses of Louisville, is opened and operated by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
1834  The Minerva is founded and edited by the faculty of St. Joseph College at Bardstown.
1836  The Catholic Advocate of Bardstown succeeds The Minerva and becomes the first Catholic weekly in Kentucky.
1837  Diocese of Nashville (including all of the State of Tennessee) is established.

DIOCESE OF LOUISVILLE: 1841-1936

1841 See of Bardstown is removed to Louisville.
1842 A colony of Sisters of the Good Shepherd arrive in Louisville.
1848 Trappist monks from Mellerary, France arrive in Kentucky under their superior, Father Maria Eutropius, OCSO, and settle on a farm named Gethsemani in Nelson County.
1849 St. Aloysius College is opened on Fourth Street in Louisville by Jesuit Fathers.
1849 The cornerstone is laid for the Cathedral of the Assumption in the presence of Bishops Flaget and Coadjutor Bishop Martin John Spalding.
1850 Louisville’s population reaches 50,000 persons.
1850 Gethsemani monastery is raised to the dignity of abbey and Father Eutropius becomes the first abbot to be elected on the continent of North America.
1850 Bishop Flaget dies and Rt. Rev. Martin John Spalding becomes the second bishop of the Louisville diocese.
1852 The new Cathedral of the Assumption is completed.
1853 The Diocese of Covington, KY, is formed.
1854 Xaverian Brothers from Belgium arrive in Louisville to establish St. Patrick’s School (forerunner of St. Xavier High School).
1855 Bloody Monday: Anti-Catholic riots in Louisville endanger the Cathedral of the Assumption and result in more than 20 deaths.
1858 Ursuline Sisters arrive in Louisville and establish their first school and convent, Ursuline Academy, and are led by Mother Salesia Reitmeier, O.S.U.
1861 The American Civil War breaks out with the firing upon Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor by Confederate forces.
1864 Bishop Martin John Spalding is transferred to Baltimore, MD, as the new archbishop.
1865 Rt. Rev. Peter Joseph Lavialle is installed as Louisville’s third bishop.
1865 The American Civil War ends.
1868 Rt. Rev. William George McCloskey becomes the fourth bishop of Louisville.
1868 The diocese has 80 priests, 80,000 Catholics and 64 churches.
1869 Sisters of Mercy introduced into the diocese.
1869 Bishop McCloskey attends the First Vatican Council at the Vatican in Rome.
1869 Seven Little Sisters of the Poor under Mother Conception arrive in Louisville.
1871 The theological seminary of the diocese moves from Nelson County to Louisville and is named Preston Park Seminary (on the current location of Bellarmine University).
1874 Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital is built through the charity of W.S. Caldwell and is operated by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
1875 First Kentucky Derby is run, with Aristides the winner.
1877 Sacred Heart Academy is founded by the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville.
1879 The Record succeeds The Catholic Advocate and publishes its first edition “for the benefit of Orphans and Seminary.” The first editor is Monsignor Michael Bouchet, Vicar General of the diocese as well as rector of the Cathedral of the Assumption.
1880 The Passionist Fathers establish their house of studies, the Sacred Heart Retreat Center, on Newburg Road in Louisville.
1885 Mercy Academy is founded by the Sisters of Mercy in Louisville.
1900 Louisville’s official population reaches 204,000 persons.
1909 Bishop McCloskey dies after a reign of 41 years.
1909 The diocese has 200 priests, 135,421 Catholics and 165 churches.
1910 Rt. Rev. Denis O’Donaghue becomes the fifth bishop of Louisville.
1920 The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth establish Nazareth College (later known as  Spalding University) in Louisville.
1924 The Most Rev. John A. Floersh, coadjutor, succeeds as the sixth bishop of Louisville.
1926 The Most Rev. Theodore Reverman, former pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church, Louisville, and a Louisville native, becomes the Bishop of Superior, WI.
1931 Saint Catharine College is founded by the Dominican Sisters of Springfield.

ARCHDIOCESE OF LOUISVILLE: 1937-Present

1937 Louisville becomes an archdiocese with Metropolitan status over the dioceses of Nashville, TN, and Covington and Owensboro, KY, with Bishop Floersh becoming the first archbishop of Louisville.
1938 The Most Rev. Francis R. Cotton, a native of Bardstown, is consecrated the first bishop of Owensboro.
1941 United States enters World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1942 Flaget High School opens and is staffed by Xaverian Brothers and archdiocesan priests.
1949 Thomas (Father Louis, OCSO) Merton, a monk at Gethsemani Abbey, becomes nationally known with his autobiographical work, The Seven Storey Mountain.
1950 Bellarmine College, an archdiocesan institution, receives its first students.
1951 Our Lady of Peace Hospital opens.
1952 St. Thomas Seminary opens in Louisville (closes in 1970).
1953 Trinity High School, an archdiocesan high school, opens in Louisville.
1955 The Most Rev. Charles G. Maloney, a Louisville native, is elevated to the episcopacy and appointed auxiliary to the Archbishop of Louisville.
1955 Assumption High School is founded by the Sisters of Mercy in Louisville.
1956 DeSales High School, operated by Carmelite Fathers and Brothers, opens in Louisville.
1962 Second Vatican Council begins with Archbishop Floersh, Bishop Maloney, Msgr. Alfred Horrigan, Father Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P., and Father Barnabas Ahern, C.P., from Bellarmine College, along with Sister of Loretto Mary Luke Tobin (one of two official female auditors) in attendance.
1962 President John F. Kennedy attends Mass at Saint Mary Magdalene Church in Louisville on October 14th, only days before the event known as “The Cuban Missile Crisis.”
1963 John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic to be elected President of the United States, is assassinated in Dallas, TX.
1967 The Most Rev. Thomas J. McDonough is installed as the seventh bishop and the second archbishop of Louisville.
1968 Thomas Merton dies. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy are assassinated.
1975 Cathedral of the Assumption is rededicated with Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Jean Jadot in attendance.
1977 Cathedral of the Assumption is named to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Landmark of Louisville.
1982 The Most Rev. Thomas C. Kelly, OP, is installed as the eighth bishop of Louisville and the third archbishop.
1982 More than 200,000 Catholics in 130 parishes and 32 missions, 263 archdiocesan priests and 98 religious order priests, four motherhouses and 25 congregations are represented in the archdiocese.
1983 Archbishop Kelly promulgates the Mission Statement of the Archdiocese with three priorities of worship, education and community service.
1984 Holy Cross High School is founded with the combination of Angela Merici and Bishop David High Schools in Louisville.
1985 The Cathedral Heritage Foundation is established with Archbishop Kelly as chairman and Rev. Ron Knott and Christy Brown as early leaders.
1986 The Renew Program, from which the Strategic Plan for the Archdiocese of Louisville evolved, comes to the archdiocese.
1986 Father Vernon Robertson, priest of the archdiocese, opens a house to serve the needs of those suffering from AIDS.
1987 The old Angela Merici High School is purchased by the archdiocese from the Ursuline Sisters, is renovated, and becomes the Flaget Center of Spirituality and Formation and Retreat Center.
1988 The Diocese of Lexington, KY, formed from 43 counties from the diocese of Covington and 7 counties from the archdiocese of Louisville, is founded and Bishop J. Kendrick Williams, a Nelson County native, becomes its first bishop.
1989 Faith Channel airs for the first time.
1994 The Louisville Cathedral of the Assumption is rededicated, and the Cathedral Heritage Foundation is credited for its part in accomplishing this restoration.
1994 His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet visits the Cathedral of the Assumption.
1995 Bishop Maloney, on his 40th episcopal anniversary, is named the first Titular Bishop of Bardstown, KY. When Bishop Maloney was buried from the Cathedral eleven years later, he was the senior in ordination of all bishops in the United States (51 years a bishop).
2000 2000 A new millennium begins with an archdiocesan Mass held in Freedom Hall in Louisville. The population of metropolitan Louisville stands at around 1 million people.
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