We Salute You, Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming!

Today's word of the day is COTERMINOUS.

From Meriam-Webster:

Coterminous

1: having the same or coincident boundaries coterminous with the city>

2: coextensive in scope or duration coterminous with the years of his father — Elizabeth Hardwick>

 The Diocese of Cheyenne is coterminous with the state of Wyoming.  The first Mass in the territory was offered by Father Pieter Jan DeSmet, a Belgian Jesuit on July 5, 1840. He wrote, "On Sunday, the 5th of July, I had the consolation of celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass sub dio.The altar was placed on an elevation, and surrounded with boughs and garlands of flowers; I addressed the congregation in French and in English, and spoke also by interpreter to the Flathead and Snake (Shoshone) Indians."

DeSmet was a pal of Sitting Bull (who was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux). 

 

The diocese of Cheyenne (Cheyennensis), coterminous with the state of Wyoming, was erected by Pope Leo XIII on August 2, 1887, as suffragan St. Louis. Maurice Francis Burke, born in Ireland and a priest of Chicago, was the first bishop of Cheyenne (1887-1893). Upon his arrival in Wyoming, Bishop Burke found a diocese about the size of Great Britain, with 4 diocesan priests, a Jesuit priest and brother, 8 churches and 28 missions (soon to be 43), for about 450 families, or 7,500 widely scattered Catholics.