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Rev. Joseph Cataldo, S.J.
| Last Name: | Cataldo |
|---|---|
| First Name: | Joseph |
| Dates: |
*1837 (Date of Birth)
*1928 (Date of Death)
|
| Biography/History: | Italian-born Joseph Benjamin Mary Cataldo entered the Society of Jesus as a young man and traveled to Boston to prepare for missionary service in the American West. His life’s ministry unfolded in the Inland Northwest after traveling the Mullan Road to the Coeur d’Alene Mission (now Cataldo Mission) in 1865. The next year he built St. Michael’s Mission on Peone Prairie to serve the Spokane tribe. As the town of Spokane Falls grew, he established Our Lady of Lourdes, the city’s first Catholic parish, in 1881. Six years later, he founded a small Jesuit college on the Spokane River and named it for St. Aloysius Gonzaga. The growing Catholic presence in Spokane also attracted religious women to the area to establish Sacred Heart Hospital and Holy Names Academy. Father Cataldo is buried at Mount Saint Michael’s cemetery in northeastern Spokane. Cataldo documented his arrival in the Inland Northwest in a letter written in 1916. |