We Salute You, Diocese of Portland, Maine!

The diocese of Portland, Maine encompasses...well, Maine. That's right! The State is the Diocese and vice versa.

Catholicism can trace it's history back to 1604 in this region, with the founding of the settlement on St. Croix Island., It didn't last long since the winter killed off half the settlement, including the priest. More settlements followed along with Jesuit missionaries, with more than 200 baptisms reported between 160-1663 at the Assumption Mission  in the settlement of Augusta. The mid-1800's were a bad time to be Catholic in Maine as anti-catholic hysteria swept the place, with burned churches and Father John Baptst getting tarred and feathered in Ellsworth. It was so bad that the Vicar of Baltimore, when offered an appointment as Bishop, DECLINED. So the first Bishop became Father David W. Bacon (there's that word again!).  The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (pictured) was built in Portland in 1869 and became the residence of the Bishop. The second bishop was James Augustine Healy (1875), the first African-American Bishop in America! Except he was African-American in the Obama sense - his dad was Irish and his mom was mixed race.

St. Patrick's Church in Newcastle is the oldest standing Catholic Church in New England. It was blessed by Fr. Jean Louis Cheverus in 1808. The historic church still contains the altar used by Father Cheverus, one of the original benches used by parishioners, and a bell cast by Paul Revere.