Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

History & Significance

Cathedral · Est. Parish established 1869; current church dedicated 1913; elevated to cathedral 1980

Immaculate Conception was established as the first Catholic parish in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1869 (originally under the name St. Francis de Sales). After a 1910 fire destroyed the earlier church, the present building was designed by the New Orleans firm Favrot & Livaudais and dedicated in 1913. When Pope John Paul II erected the Diocese of Lake Charles on January 29, 1980 (from territory of the Diocese of Lafayette), the church became its cathedral. It serves today as the seat of the Diocese of Lake Charles, and its Carrara marble image of the Immaculate Conception received a canonical coronation approved by Pope Benedict XVI.

Romanesque Revival / Italianate, cruciform plan (Favrot & Livaudais, 1913)

• •Seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lake Charles
• •Parish founded December 8, 1869; current church dedicated December 18, 1913
• •Became a cathedral January 29, 1980, when the Diocese of Lake Charles was erected from the Diocese of Lafayette
• •Added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 7, 1994
• •Its Carrara marble image of the Virgin Mary received a canonical coronation approved by Pope Benedict XVI (ceremony 2013)