Diocese of Ogdensburg Dioecesis Ogdensburgensis |
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Location | |
Country | United States |
Territory | Counties of St. Lawrence, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, and northern Hamilton and Herkimer, New York |
Ecclesiastical province | New York |
Metropolitan | Timothy Cardinal Dolan |
Statistics | |
Area | 12,036 sq mi (31,170 km2) |
Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2004) 462,000 143,000 (31.1%) |
Parishes | 119 |
Information | |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | February 15, 1872 (145 years ago) |
Cathedral | St. Mary's Cathedral |
Patron saint | St. Mary |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Terry Ronald LaValley |
Map | |
Website | |
www |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg (Latin: Dioecesis Ogdensburgensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in New York. It was founded on February 15, 1872. It comprises the entirety of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties and the northern portions of Hamilton and Herkimer counties.
On February 23, 2010, the Most Reverend Terry Ronald LaValley was appointed diocesan bishop by Pope Benedict XVI on February 23, 2010, and was installed on April 30, 2010.
The area covered by the Diocese of Ogdensburg was originally inhabited by the Iroquois. The 1600s saw the arrival of French, Dutch, and English fur-traders. Initially Catholics in the North Country was served by priests from Quebec.
In 1749, the Mission of The Holy Trinity was established by Sulpician Abbé François Picquet from Montreal, who built a mission fort named Fort de La Présentation near the junction of the Oswegatchie River and the St Lawrence River. Bishop de Pontbriand of Quebec visited in 1752. During the French and Indian War the fort was garrisoned by French-Canadian military, but abandoned in favor of Fort Lévis.
During the Colonial Period and until the end of the American Revolution, the Church in New York State was under the jurisdiction of the Vicariate of London. The first settlers in the region were Protestants from New England. It was only towards 1790 that Acadian Catholic immigrants occupied lands around Corbeau, now Coopersville, near Lake Champlain, where they were occasionally visited by missionaries from Fort Laprairie, Canada. After the Revolution the area came under the Apostolic Prefecture of the United States, which became in 1789 the Diocese of Baltimore.