Historical Timeline

ARCHDIOCESE OF TORONTO

1615
  • First Mass in Huronia is held on the southern shores of Georgian Bay.
1650
  • Six Jesuits are martyred.
1767
  • First Catholic parish in Ontario for Europeans is established in Windsor.
1780s
  • Catholics from Scotland settle in Stormont and Glengarry counties.
1790s
  • Right Reverend Edmund Burke, Vicar-General for Upper Canada, purchases parcels of land for future sites of Catholic churches and institutions.
Bishop Alexander MacDonnell,
Bishop of Kingston.
PH 01/01P Credit: D. Donovan, Alexandria, ON, c1980. Photograph of a painting located at St. Augustine's Seminary that is a copy of a painting by Martin Archer Shee, c1823 of Bishop MacDonell located at the National Archives of Canada.
1793
  • York is founded with the arrival of John Graves Simcoe. 
1806
  • Catholic settlers in Ontario number about 170.1
1812-1815
  • War of 1812
1822
  • St. Paul's Church, the first Catholic parish in Toronto, is established.
1826
  • Upper Canada is transferred from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Québec to the new Bishop of Kingston, Bishop Alexander Macdonell.
1837-1838
  • Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions.
1841
  • December 17: Diocese of Toronto is created covering the western half of Upper Canada with Bishop Michael Power appointed as the first Bishop.
1842
  • June 26: Bishop Power is installed at St. Paul's Church in Toronto.

  • October: First Toronto diocesan synod is held to establish the policies and regulations to govern the new diocese and its 25,000 Catholics. 2
1845
P AA06.02   Pastoral Address by Bishop Michael Power in 1842.
Click on the picture to read the text!
1846
  • December 7: St. Michael’s Palace (Episcopal Residence, Chancery Office and Cathedral Rectory) is blessed
1847
  • October 1: Bishop Power dies and is buried beneath the unfinished cathedral.
1848
  • Catholic population is 50,0003

  • September 29: St. Michael’s Cathedral is consecrated by Bishop Bourget of Montréal.

1850
1852
  • May:  St. Michael's College is founded.
  1855
  • St. Michael’s Cemetery is established.

The heraldic crests for the dioceses of Hamilton and London.

1856
  • The Diocese of Toronto is divided by the erection of the dioceses of Hamilton and London.

CC SP.01.03  A public notice regarding the closure of St. Paul's Cemetery, 1857

1857
  • Cemetery by St. Paul’s Church is officially closed.

  • House of Providence opens.
1858
  • Bishop de Charbonnel imports St. Michael’s Cathedral’s three east windows and the Stations of the Cross from France.
1859
1860
  • April 29: Bishop de Charbonnel resigns and returns to France.  Bishop Lynch becomes the third Bishop of Toronto.
1863
  • Bishop Lynch holds a diocesan synod to solidify the regulations governing the 40,000 Catholics in his care.4
1867
  • July 1: Dominion of Canada is established through the British North America Act
1870
  • March 18: Pope Pius IX raises Toronto to an Archdiocese during Vatican Council I, making Bishop Lynch an Archbishop.
1873
  • St. Michael's Cathedral is completed with the addition of the tower, steeple, sacristy, bells and a fence.
1875
1876
  • Sacred Heart Orphanage, also known as "Sunnyside", is established on the site of today's St. Joseph's Health Care Centre.
1877
  • Archbishop Lynch establishes a seminary in St. John's Grove (located on the property of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish).
1879
1886
  • Catholic population is 57,0005
1887
  • October 9: Cornerstone of the new St. Paul’s Church is laid.
1888
  • May 12: Archbishop Lynch dies and is buried in the garden of St. Michael's Cathedral.
1889
1891

PH 31P/227AL  St. Michael's Hospital

1892
  • St. Michael’s Hospital is founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
1893
1898
  • July 30: Archbishop Walsh dies and is buried in front of the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. Michael's Cathedral.
1899
1900
  • Mount Hope Cemetery is opened.
1908
1910
  • October 23: Cornerstone of St. Augustine's Seminary is laid.
1911
  • Catholic population is 70,000 and Archbishop McEvay has created seven new parishes, bringing the total number of churches to 92; he has also built 10 church buildings and a new archiepiscopal residence.7

  • May 10: Archbishop McEvay  dies and is buried in Regina Cleri Cemetery at St. Augustine’s Seminary
  • June 30: Archbishop O'Connor  dies and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.
1912

PH 26S & PH 26  St. Augustine's Seminary and miscellaneous photos of seminarians who attended.  

1913
  • Catholic Charities Office is formed [name changes: Federation of Catholic Charities (1927); Council of Catholic Charities (1946); Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto (1981)].

  • August 28: Opening of St. Augustine's Seminary.
1914
  • June 28: Outbreak of World War I
1917
  • Catholic population is 75,000, served by 100 parishes and missions 8

MN PC25.04  Archbishop McNeil's pamphlet.

1918
  • February: Archbishop McNeil issues pamphlet entitled "The Pope and the War".

  • November 11: Armistice is signed ending World War I.
1924
  • China Mission Seminary is established next to St. Augustine's Seminary, later becoming the Scarborough Foreign Mission Society.
1929
  • Catholic population is 125,000, served by 119 parishes and missions 9

  • September: Foundation of the Institute of Mediaeval Studies [is created a Pontifical Institute in October 1939].
  • October 29: Stock market crashes marking the beginning of Great Depression
1934
  • May 25: Archbishop McNeil dies and is buried at St. Augustine's Seminary.

  • Catholic population is 165,00010 and the number of parishes and missions has grown to 126 11
1935
1937
  • St. Michael’s Choir School is founded
1939-1945
  • World War II: Archbishop McGuigan releases priests to serve as chaplains in the armed forces and forms a unit of ninety women's societies sending parcels overseas, providing chapels and reading rooms in military camps and serving meals.
1942-1961
  • Archbishop McGuigan’s administration conducts many successful fund-raising campaigns, including ones for St. Augustine's Seminary and for Catholic education.
1946
  • February 18: Archbishop McGuigan is elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals, becoming the first English-speaking Cardinal in Canada.
1947
  • June 18-22: Marian Congress in Ottawa is presided over by Cardinal McGuigan as the special representative of Pope Pius XII.
1949
  • Catholic population is 197,000, served by 158 parishes and missions 12
1954
  • Opening of Holy Cross Cemetery in Thornhill.

The heraldic crest for the Diocese of St. Catharines'.

1958
  • November:  Establishment of the Diocese of St. Catharines.
1959
  • Catholic population is 365,000, served by 153 parishes and missions 13
1961
1962-1965
  • The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II
1966
  • Senate of Priests is established.
1969
  • January: Archdiocesan Pastoral Council is established.
1970
  • April: Toronto School of Theology is incorporated.
1971
1973
  • Catholic population is 750,000, served by 203 parishes and missions 14

1974
  • April 8: Cardinal McGuigan dies and is buried at St. Augustine's Seminary.

  • May-June: The first 26 Permanent Deacons of the Archdiocese of Toronto are ordained in five separate ceremonies by Archbishop Pocock.
1976
  • ShareLife is established when Archbishop Pocock withdrew the Council of Catholic Charities from the United Way.
1978
1979

Official commemorative booklet from the annual Cardinal's Dinner.

1981
1982
  • Covenant House is established in downtown Toronto.
1984
  • Catholic population is 1,214,000, served by 214 parishes, missions and chapels16

  • September 6: Archbishop Pocock dies and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Thornhill.
  • September 14-15: Pope John Paul II visits various parts of the archdiocese as part of a pastoral visit to Canada.
1986
1987
  • Ontario Government passes legislation providing full funding to Catholic high schools
1990
1991
  • April: Archbishop Ambrozic announces the creation of an office of youth ministry [now called Office of Catholic Youth].
1992
  • Catholic population is 1,337,00017, served by 233 parishes, missions and chapels 18
1998
2000
  • November 5: Official Blessing of St. Paul's Church as a Minor Basilica.
2002
  • July 23-28: World Youth Day in Toronto.

  • November 16: Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute (CCBI) is officially opened.
2003
  • April 6: Cardinal Carter dies and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Thornhill.
2005

Papal Bull appointing Thomas Christopher Collins as the 10th Archbishop of Toronto.

2006
Today
  • Serving the Archdiocese of Toronto’s Catholic population of about 1,700,000 are: 217 parishes, 24 missions and various ethnic chaplaincies; 386 diocesan priests; 116 permanent deacons; as well as 90 religious orders comprised of 450 priests, 56 brothers and 643 sisters. 19
  1 ARCAT, Bishop Macdonell Fonds, M CG01.02, letter from Rev. Alexander Macdonell to Bishop Plessis, May 10, 1806.
2 Censuses of Canada, 1665-1871, vol. 4 of Census of Canada, 1870-1871 (Ottawa: I.B. Taylor, 1876) and Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada, ed. J.G. Hodgins (Toronto: L.K. Cameron, 1900). See Appendix 3 of Mark G. McGowan’s Michael Power: The Struggle to Build the Catholic Church on the Canadian Frontier (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005).
3 Ibid.
4 The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laity’s Directory for the United States, Canada, and the British Provinces (Baltimore: John Murphy and Co., 1861), p. 246.
5 ARCAT, Letterbooks, LB05.043, Statistical Report, October 16, 1886.
6 Hoffmann’s Catholic Directory (Milwaukee: Hoffman Company, 1899), p. 43.
7 Catholic Directory, Almanac and Clergy List (Milwaukee: Wiltzius Company, 1911), p. 55.
8 The Ontario Catholic Year Book and Directory (Toronto: Newman Club Toronto, 1918), p. 40.
9 The Official Catholic Directory Anno Domini 1929 (New York: P.J. Kennedy and Sons, 1929), p. 61.
10 The Official Catholic Directory Anno Domini 1935 (New York: P.J. Kennedy and Sons, 1935), p. 47.
11 Hoffmann’s Catholic Directory (Milwaukee: Hoffman Company, 1899), p. 43.
12 Le Canada Ecclésiastique: Annuaire du Clergé 1949 (Montréal: Librairie Beauchemin, 1949) p. 388.
13ARCAT, Diocesan Quinquennial Reports, 1959.
14ARCAT, Diocesan Quinquennial Reports, 1973.
15 Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops Directory 1979 (Ottawa: Concacan inc., 1979), p. 78.
16 Canadian Catholic Church Directory 1985-1986 (Montréal: B.M. Advertising Inc., 1985), p. 218.
17ARCAT, Diocesan Quinquennial Reports, 1992.
18Canadian Catholic Church Directory 1992 (Montréal: B.M. Advertising Inc., 1992), p. 305.
19Statistics on number of parishes, missions, priests, permanent deacons and religious order personnel compiled from internal Chancery Information System (CIS) database reports. Catholic population compiled from: Statistics Canada, “2001 Census of Population, Religions in Canada: Highlight tables,” Statistics Canada, (accessed August 4, 2005).



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