St. Cloud Cathedral Celebrating 140 Years, Hosting Winter Gala

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- St. Cloud Cathedral is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year.

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The school's history dates back to 1884 when the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict began offering morning classes to families. It wasn't called Cathedral yet but it was the Holy Angels Parish.

Catholic Community Schools President David Fremo says they taught classes in English, not German, from the beginning.

What was unique about it was the common tongue of Cathlics in central Minnesota really was German at the time. These were the immigrants who came and the monks who followed them to form schools and hospitals, along with the sisters, and the Holy Angels parish in downtown St. Cloud was the first English-speaking school at the time.

Fremo says the school has always been on the same site, but the original school building no longer exists. It was across the street from the Holy Angels building which still stands today and was built one year prior in 1883.

Holy Angels Performing Arts Center, photo by WJON.com's Jim Maurice

Cathedral is celebrating the milestone with a Winter Gala on Saturday, November 23rd at Park Event Center in Waite Park. It runs from 5:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. and features a sit-down dinner, live entertainment, a silent and live auction, a 50/50 raffle, and more. Tickets are $90 each and can be bought online.

Fremo says with the recent completion of the addition to the high school, they are ready for the next generation of learners.

Not only has it added a beautiful science classroom, and engineering classroom, capel, common space, art classroom, but it's also provided us the opportunity to reconfigure and reinvision some of our other existing space.

Fremo says there are about 550 students in grades 6 through 12 at Cathedral. The Catholic Community Schools consists of seven schools, including six that offer pre-k through grade 5, and has a total enrollment of just over 1,400 students.

Fremo says the Catholic Community Schools is pursuing full accreditation as a Catholic school system in the next few years.