Saturday, November 8, 2008

Cathedral of Saint Agnes




Diocese of Rockville Center.

The present site of the Cathedral of Saint Agnes was once occupied by an earlier marble church structure consecrated in 1904, by 1933 the parish church of Saint Agnes proved too small for the growing Catholic population of Rockville Center. The old marble church gave way to a new structure constructed in the Norman Gothic style by the renowned architect Gustave E. Steinbeck.

In 1935 Archbishop Thomas E. Molloy, the Bishop of Brooklyn consecrated the new structure. In 1957 Pope Pius XII split the diocese of Brooklyn and created the new diocese of Rockville Center, with Saint Agnes as the new cathedral.

In 1982 the Cathedral underwent extensive changes to its interior bringing it into conformity with what some at the time understood the conciliar changes demanded. It’s elegant and noted neo-medieval style gave way to more modern fashion.