Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette is a suffragan diocese of the Roman rite, encompassing all of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Detroit. It encompasses an area of 16,281 square miles.
Its cathedral is St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette, which replaced Holy Name of Mary Pro-Cathedral at Sault Ste. Marie.
In 2000, the number of registered Catholics in the diocese was 65,500. There were fifty-eight diocesan priests and 11 religious at 74 parishes and 23 missions. There were 10 parish grade schools. Sixty-three women religious were also in service to the diocese.

History

separated territory from the Diocese of Detroit, to create the Vicariate Apostolic of Upper Michigan on July 29, 1853. On January 9, 1857, he raised the Vicarate to the status of a Diocese, as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie. In 1865, Bishop Baraga transferred the See city to Marquette, and requested it be renamed the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette. In 1937 it became simply the Diocese of Marquette, and the Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie became a titular see.
As early as the 17th century, Jesuit missionaries from France traveled to the Upper Peninsula to evangelize the Native American population. The first Catholic Mass in the Upper Peninsula was celebrated in 1641 by St. Isaac Jogues, in the area that would later become Sault Ste. Marie.
The first resident pastor was noted missionary Jacques Marquette, who arrived in 1668. Marquette founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. Marie, and later founded St. Ignace, Michigan. Other Jesuits would follow, and maintain a presence throughout the years.
Father Frederic Baraga settled at L'Anse in 1843, after forming Catholic missions in Wisconsin. He would devote the rest of his life to evangelizing in the Upper Peninsula. He later would become the first Bishop of the newly formed diocese, in 1857.
In 1953, on the 100th anniversary of the diocese being named a Vicariate Apostolic, a centennial Mass was held in Marquette on August 30.
In 2020, former Diocese of Marquette priest Gary Allen Jacobs was arrested in New Mexico and charged with 10 criminal charges, including eight counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, from his time in the Diocese of Marquette.

Churches

Bishops

Bishops of Saulte Sainte Marie–Marquette

  1. Ireneus Frederic Baraga
  2. Ignatius Mrak
  3. John Vertin
  4. Frederick Eis
  5. Paul Joseph Nussbaum, C.P.

    Bishops of Marquette

  6. Joseph Casimir Plagens
  7. Francis Joseph Magner
  8. Thomas Lawrence Noa
  9. Charles Salatka
  10. Mark Francis Schmitt
  11. James Henry Garland
  12. Alexander King Sample
  13. John Francis Doerfler

    Other priests of this diocese who became bishops