More Information on the Roman Catholic Church:

The original inhabitants of the St. Louis area were French and brought their Roman Catholic religion with them. Catholic churches were built in Cahokia in 1699, in Kaskaskia and near Fort de Chartres after 1720, at St. Philippe in 1723, in Prairie du Rocher in 1734, and at Ste. Genevieve about 1750. When St. Louis was founded in 1764, the block bounded by today's Walnut, Third, Market and Second streets was set aside for the church by Pierre Laclede. Don Pedro Piernas, the Spanish lieutenant governor, built a small log church on this block in 1770. Although there was no resident priest, St. Louis was often visited by Father Maurin, who traveled between parishes along the Mississippi River. In 1772, St. Louis ordered a bell for their church, which can still be seen on display in the Old Cathedral Museum; the bell was baptized in 1774 by Father Gibault (the "Patriot priest" who helped George Rogers Clark during the Revolutionary War). The bell was tolled at least three times each day; at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset. The bell also called villagers to mass on Sunday.

In 1776, the growing town of St. Louis received its first pastor, Bernard de Limpach, a Capuchin monk, and a second church was built. This was a larger, vertical log structure which measured 60 x 30 feet. It was Father Bernard who blessed the first stone laid for Fort San Carlos, and who, after the battle with the British and Indians in 1780, buried the dead in the church graveyard (see Block 100). He served as the St. Louis parish priest until 1789. Father Jean Antoine Ledru succeeded him until 1794, when Father Pierre Joseph Didier, a refugee from the French Revolution, took over.

In Colonial-era St. Louis, the church was a center of social life and the priest was one of the most learned men in town. As St. Louis began to change with an influx of Anglo-Americans in the 1790s, however, the town became less and less religious. Attendance at mass dwindled, and was composed of more women than men. Many of the new residents of the town hid their religious beliefs, and after the transfer of Louisiana to the Americans religion was ridiculed nightly in taverns and at a local theater. St. Louis was considered to be a Godless, heathen town after 1804, when the population of non-French residents rose and the resident priest had departed. The arrival of Bishop Louis William Valentin DuBourg on January 4, 1818 brought religion back to St. Louis. In May 1818, Bishop DuBourg laid the cornerstone for a brick cathedral; his successor, Bishop Joseph Rosati, built the present "Old Cathedral" in 1834.