St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica

St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica stands at Bond and Shuter Streets, a block east of Yonge Street, and has been the seat of Toronto's Roman Catholic Archdiocese since the 1840s. It was commissioned by Michael Power, the first Catholic bishop of Toronto, and designed by architect William Thomas in the Gothic Revival style; the cornerstone was laid in 1845 and the building opened for worship in 1848. Construction overlapped almost exactly with the Great Irish Famine — in 1847, tens of thousands of Irish migrants landed in Toronto, many already sick with typhus. Bishop Power spent that summer visiting the sick in the fever sheds along the waterfront, contracted typhus himself, and died in September 1847, more than a year before the cathedral was finished.

Basilica status and restoration

St. Michael's was elevated to the status of minor basilica in the late 1930s and remains the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Toronto today. The building closed for an extensive restoration in the 2010s addressing deteriorating stonework, the roof and interior finishes, reopening in 2016 with a formal rededication led by Cardinal Thomas Collins. It continues to host ordinations and major liturgical events for the Archdiocese.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — St. Michael's Cathedral
• Wikipedia — St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica

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