The 29th state to be admitted to the Union (28 December 1846).
Mass was said, probably for the first time in Iowa, c.1832, in the log cabin of Patrick Quigley, in the new settlement of Dubuque, by a visiting priest from Galena, Illinois, either Reverend John McMahon or his successor, Reverend Charles Fitzmaurice.
The latter gathered money to build a church there but died of cholera, as his predecessor had, before he could go on with it.
The actual building of the church, that of Saint Raphael, was carried out in 1836 by the Dominican, Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, who was his own architect and gave all he had to the fund he collected.
The next year he laid the corner-stone of Saint Anthony's church in Davenport, and the following year the Reverend August Brickwede of Quincy, Illinois, encouraged the building of Saint James church, a log structure, on Sugar Creek near Fort Madison; in 1838 Saint Joseph's Mission was founded at Council Bluffs by Father Pierre de Smet, S.J.
The work of these pioneers was developed under the administratration of the first bishop, Right Reverend Matthew Loras, a native of Lyons, France.
Catholic influence on place-names of the state is shown in the following:
Archdioceses, past and present, include
Dioceses, past and present, include:
- Saint Ansgar
- Saint Anthony
- Saint Benedict
- Saint Charles
- Saint Donatus
- Saint Lucas
- Saint Marys
- Saint Olaf
New Catholic Dictionary