History & Significance
Cathedral · Est. Parish founded 1878; designated cathedral 1981
St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral in Metuchen, New Jersey, traces its roots to an 1871 frame mission church; St. Francis Parish was incorporated on January 26, 1878. After the original was destroyed by fire in 1903, a successor was built, and the present Gothic Revival church was constructed beginning in 1961. On November 19, 1981, Pope John Paul II established the Diocese of Metuchen, and St. Francis was designated its cathedral. It serves as the mother church and seat of the diocese.
Gothic Revival; limestone interior with Italian marble altars, seats about 1,000
- •Seat and mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen
- •Diocese of Metuchen established by Pope John Paul II on November 19, 1981, from territory of the Diocese of Trenton
- •St. Francis Parish incorporated January 26, 1878; original mission church dated to 1871
- •Present church construction broke ground July 24, 1961
- •Diocese serves Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren counties in New Jersey
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