The Archdiocese of St. Louis (Latin: Archidiœcesis Sancti Ludovici) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the eastern part of the State of Missouri in the United States.

The archdiocese is led by Archbishop, Mitchell Rozanski, formerly the Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts. The archdiocesan cathedral is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in St. Louis.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis covers the City of St. Louis and the Missouri counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Perry, Saint Charles, Saint Francois, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, Warren, and Washington. It is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province containing three suffragan sees:

• Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in northeastern Missouri
• Diocese of Jefferson City in southeastern Missouri
• Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph in western Missouri

The first Catholic presence in present-day Missouri was that of the Jesuit missionary Reverend Jacques Marquette in 1673, who stopped in Perry County while voyaging down the Mississippi River. French-Canadian settlers established St. Genevieve, the first parish in the archdiocese, in 1759 in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri During this period, the Catholics in the region were under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of San Cristobal de la Habana, based in Havana, Cuba. With the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Spain took control of the French territories west of the Mississippi River.

In 1793, after the American Revolution, Pope Pius VI erected the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, based in New Orleans. It encompassed all the Spanish territories on the continent, including the Missouri area. Due to politics in Europe, the new diocese did not receive a bishop until 1815.

In 1803, with the signing of the Louisiana Purchase, the United States took control from France of a vast area of the continent, including Missouri. Pope Pius VII in 1815 named Reverend Louis Dubourg from the Diocese of Baltimore as the first bishop of Louisiana and the Two Floridas.Due to concerns about his personal safety in New Orleans, DuBourg chose the City of St. Louis as his episcopal see. He founded St.Louis Parish, the first parish in the city.

Wanting to train American priests for his vast diocese, DuBourg established St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary in Perryville in 1818, placing it under the charge of the Lazarist fathers. In August 1818, he recruited Sister Rose Philippine Duchesne from the Society of the Sacred Heart in France, to open girls schools in the diocese. Duchesne founded the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles, the first free school west of the Mississippi River, along with another girls school in Florissant. DuBourg also invited the Sisters of Loretto to establish a school for girls.In 1818, DuBourg founded the Saint Louis Academy, later known as Saint Louis College to educate Catholic laymen. In 1823, at DuBourg's invitation, the Society of Jesus sent several Belgian priests to Florissant, where they began ministering to Native American converts.

In 1824, Pope Leo XII appointed Bishop Joseph Rosati as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas. After Rosati's appointment, DuBourg moved his episcopal see back to New Orleans, leaving Rosati in control of St. Louis.

On July 18, 1826, Pope Leo XII divided up the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas. One of the new dioceses was the Diocese of St. Louis, which included Missouri along with vast areas of the American Midwest and Great Plains Because of its size, the diocese was often referred to as the Rome of the West. Leo XII named Rosati as the first bishop of St. Louis.

In 1827, Rosati transferred Saint Louis College to the Jesuits They converted the lower division of the college into St. Louis University High School.The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul opened Mullanphy Hospital in St. Louis in 1828.The Jesuits in 1829 established Saint Louis College as Saint Louis University in 1829. Rosati dedicated the Cathedral of St. Louis in 1834, making it the first Catholic cathedral west of the Mississippi River.

As Catholic communities started increasing outside of St. Louis, the Vatican erected new dioceses from the Diocese of St.Louis. In 1837, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Dubuque, covering the present-day states of Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.The same pope in 1841 appointed Reverend Peter Kenrick as coadjutor bishop in St. Louis to assist Rosati. When Kenrick became coadjutor bishop, the diocese was heavily in debt, due to the $90,000 cost of the new cathedral. With Rosati's assistance, the diocese received financial aid from Catholic organizations in Europe. Kenrick's brother Francis Kendrick, bishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia, also provided assistance.

In early 1843, the Vatican took more territory from St. Louis to found the Diocese of Little Rock in Arkansas and the Diocese of Chicago in Illinois.After Rosati died in Rome in late 1843, Kenrick automatically succeeded him as bishop of St. Louis.

After receiving at $300,000 bequest, Kenrick was able to stabilize the diocesan finances through some shrewd real estate dealings. He took many trips by horseback throughout the diocese, reaching Catholics who did not have priests in their communities. In St. Louis, Kenrick instructed the cathedral priests to celebrate masses in English instead of French, as most of the congregation was now English-speaking.

Pope Pius IX elevated the Diocese of St. Louis to the Archdiocese of St. Louis on July 20, 1847, naming Kenrick as its first archbishop.By 1850, the archdiocese was operating ten parishes in the City of St. Louis.

During the American Civil War, Kenrick maintained a neutral position in a strongly-divided Missouri. After the war, he urged his priests to refuse to take the ironclad oath. The oath was a tactic promoted by Republicans to dissuade former officials of the Confederacy from holding influential positions in society. Reverend John A. Cummings challenged the legality of the oath in a case that reached the United States Supreme Court. It later ruled that the government could not force individuals to take the oath.

St. Louis Preparatory Seminary in the countryside which is now the St. Louis suburb of Shrewsbury was completed in 1931. Later it became Cardinal Glennon College. Today it is the archdiocesan seminary Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

In 1999, the archdiocese hosted a two-day visit from Pope John Paul II, its first papal visit. The pope had visited the archdiocese 30 years earlier when he was archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kraków.

In 2022, the archdiocese announced that it would no longer participate in the National School Lunch Program, established in 1946 to feed lunch to poor students. It took this action to avoid complying with new government regulations on gender identify under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The archdiocese stated that it would provide its own free lunch program.

Facing a shortage of priests and decreased mass attendance, the archdiocese in 2023 announced the closure of 44 parishes. Under the plan, 35 parishes were merged into neighboring ones, with 15 parishes going in 2026 into five new parishes. Archbishop Rozanski noted;

"The church experience in our parishes today is not the same as it was 50 years ago, yet we are still functioning in many ways out of the same mode of evangelization with the same structures. We have inherited a great treasure of Catholic institutions from previous generations, but many of them are no longer as effective or sustainable as they once were.”

The archdiocese has admitted that it enslaved at least 87 people throughout its history, and that at least 5 senior clergy owned slaves.

In 2004, the Archdiocese of St. Louis paid $1.7 million to settle sexual abuse claims.

In 2018, Archbishop Carlson testified that he was unsure whether he knew in the 1980s that sexual assault of a minor was a crime, and was unable to say when he came to believe that sexual abuse of a minor was a crime.

In July 2019, the archdiocese released the names of 64 clergy who were "credibly accused" of committing acts of sexual abuse.On August 16, 2019, "sexually violent priest" Frederick Lenczycki, who had previously served prison time in Illinois between 2004 and 2009 for acts of sexual abuse, was sentenced to 10 years in prison 2+1⁄2 months after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a boy in St. Louis County.In 2019, the Missouri Attorney General's Office identified over 160 instances of archdiocesan priests and deacons sexually abusing minors.

In June 2023, the archdiocese agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit by a man who alleged he was raped when an altar boy from 4th through 6th grade by a since-defrocked priest who has been required to register as a sex offender.

In July 2024, a lawsuit brought by 25 former attendees of churches and schools within the Archdiocese of St. Louis claimed that Catholic leadership knew of rampant sexual abuse they suffered. One former altar boy says he was sexually abused from 2008 and 2011 by Father William Vatterott, who was later convicted for possession of child pornography. Another plaintiff says he was caught wearing red socks, which were prohibited at Catholic summer camp, and was sent to a sexually abusive priest for discipline. The priest told the child he would "burn in hell for all eternity" unless he kept the abuse secret. A girl ages 8 to 9 in 1999 says she was abused by Father James Grady, who was later arrested for paying a 16-year-old girl for sex acts and child pornography, and also by a nun called "Sister Annette".

The Cathedral of Saint Louis is dedicated to King Louis IX of France. Its co-patrons are Reverend Vincent de Paul and Sister Rose Philippine Duchesne. The cathedral contains the largest collection of mosaics in the world.It was dedicated in 1926 on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of St. Louis as a diocese, and was started by Archbishop John Glennon and completed by Archbishop John May. Work on the cathedral mosaics would not be completed for 60 years. The Cathedral of St. Louis was designated a "Basilica" in 1997 on the 150th anniversary of the archdiocese.

The following is a list of the archbishops, bishops, coadjutor bishop and auxiliary bishops of the diocese and archdiocese.

Louis-Guillaume-Valentin Dubourg (1812–1826), appointed Bishop of Montauban and later Archbishop of Besançon

1. Joseph Rosati, C.M. (1827–1843)
   - John Timon (Appointed Coadjutor Bishop in 1839, but did not take effect); appointed Prefect Apostolic of the Republic of Texas in 1840 and later Bishop of Buffalo
2. Peter Richard Kenrick (1843–1847); Elevated to Archbishop

1. Peter Richard Kenrick (1847–1895)
2. John Joseph Kain (1895–1903)
3. Cardinal John J. Glennon (1903–1946)
4. Cardinal Joseph Ritter (1946–1967)
5. Cardinal John Joseph Carberry (1968–1979)
6. John L. May (1980–1992)
7. Justin Francis Rigali (1994–2003), appointed Archbishop of Philadelphia (Cardinal in 2003)
8. Raymond Leo Burke (2004–2008), appointed Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and later Patron of the Order of Malta (Cardinal in 2010)
9. Robert James Carlson (2009–2020)
10. Mitchell T. Rozanski (2020–present)

• Christian Herman Winkelmann (1933–1939), appointed Bishop of Wichita
• George Joseph Donnelly (1940–1946), appointed Bishop of Leavenworth
• John Patrick Cody (1947–1954), appointed Coadjutor Bishop and Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph and later Coadjutor Archbishop and Archbishop of New Orleans and Archbishop of Chicago (Cardinal in 1967)
• Charles Herman Helmsing (1949–1956), appointed Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph
• Leo Christopher Byrne (1954–1961), appointed Coadjutor Bishop and Bishop of Wichita and later Coadjutor Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis
• Glennon Patrick Flavin (1957–1967), appointed Bishop of Lincoln
• George Joseph Gottwald (1961–1988)
• Joseph Alphonse McNicholas (1969–1975), appointed Bishop of Springfield in Illinois
• Charles Roman Koester (1971–1991)
• Edward Thomas O'Meara (1972–1979), appointed Archbishop of Indianapolis
• John Nicholas Wurm (1976–1981), appointed Bishop of Belleville
• Edward Joseph O'Donnell (1983–1994), appointed Bishop of Lafayette
• James Terry Steib (1983–1993), appointed Bishop of Memphis
• Paul Albert Zipfel (1989–1996), appointed Bishop of Bismarck
• Edward Kenneth Braxton (1995–2001), appointed Bishop of Lake Charles and later Bishop of Belleville
• Michael John Sheridan (1997–2001), appointed Bishop of Colorado Springs
• Joseph Fred Naumann (1997–2004), appointed Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas
• Timothy Michael Dolan (2001–2002), appointed Archbishop of Milwaukee and later Archbishop of New York (Cardinal in 2012)
• Robert Joseph Hermann (2002–2010)
• Edward Matthew Rice (2010–2016), appointed Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau
• Mark Steven Rivituso (2017–present)

• Michael Portier, appointed Vicar Apostolic of Alabama and the Floridas in 1825 and later Bishop of Mobile
• Patrick A. Feehan, appointed Bishop of Nashville in 1865 and later Bishop and Archbishop of Chicago
• John Hennessy, appointed Bishop (in 1866) and later Archbishop of Dubuque
• John Joseph Hogan, appointed Bishop of Saint Joseph in 1868 and later Bishop of Kansas City
• Joseph Melcher, appointed Bishop of Green Bay in 1868 (1853 appointment as Bishop of Quincy did not take effect)
• John Joseph Hennessy, appointed Bishop of Wichita in 1868
• John Henry Tihen (priest here, 1886–1888), appointed Bishop of Lincoln in 1911 and later Bishop of Denver in 1917
• Christopher Edward Byrne, appointed Bishop of Galveston in 1918
• Mark Kenny Carroll, appointed Bishop of Wichita in 1947
• Marion Francis Forst, appointed Bishop of Dodge City in 1960 and later Auxiliary Bishop of Kansas City in Kansas
• Andrés Bernardo (Andrew Bernard) Schierhoff, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of La Paz in 1968 and later Prelate of Pando
• Luis Morgan Casey, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of La Paz in 1983 and later Apostolic Vicar of Pando
• John Joseph Leibrecht, appointed Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in 1984
• John R. Gaydos, appointed Bishop of Jefferson City in 1997
• George Joseph Lucas, appointed Bishop of Springfield in Illinois in 1999 and later Archbishop of Omaha
• Robert William Finn, appointed Coadjutor Bishop in 2004 and later Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph
• Richard Frank Stika, appointed Bishop of Knoxville in 2009

The Archdiocese of St. Louis contains 97 primary schools and 25 high schools, with a total enrollment as of 2023 of 30,741.

• Bishop DuBourg High School – St. Louis
• Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School – St. Louis
• Duchesne High School – St. Charles
• Valle Catholic High School – Sainte Genevieve
• St. Dominic High School – O'Fallon
• St. Francis Borgia Regional High School – Washington
• St. Pius X High School – Festus
• St. Vincent de Paul High School – Perryville

• Chaminade College Preparatory School – Creve Coeur
• Christian Brothers College High School – Town & Country
• De Smet Jesuit High School – Creve Coeur
• St. John Vianney High School – Kirkwood
• St. Louis Priory School – Creve Coeur
• St. Louis University High School – St. Louis
• St. Mary's High School – St. Louis

• Cor Jesu Academy – Affton
• Incarnate Word Academy – Bel-Nor
• Nerinx Hall High School – Webster Groves
• Notre Dame High School – Lemay
• Rosati-Kain High School – St. Louis
• St. Joseph's Academy – Frontenac
• Ursuline Academy – Oakland
• Villa Duchesne – Frontenac
• Visitation Academy – Town and Country

• Barat Academy – Chesterfield (closed in 2023)
• John F. Kennedy Catholic High School – Manchester (closed in 2017)
• St. Elizabeth Academy – St. Louis (closed in 2013)
• Trinity Catholic High School – North County (closed in 2021)

The Catholic Cemeteries ministry operates 17 cemeteries in the Archdiocese of St. Louis :

• Ascension
• Calvary
• Holy Cross
• Mt. Olive
• Our Lady
• Queen of Peace
• Resurrection
• Sacred Heart
• Ss. Paul and Peter
• St. Charles Borromeo
• St. Ferdinand
• St. Joseph
• St. Mary
• St. Monica
• St. Peter
• St. Philippine
• St. Vincent

• Diocese of Jefferson City
• Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph
• Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau

• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis Official Site
• Archives section
• Story of John Paul II's 1999 visit
• St. Louis Review, the weekly newspaper of the archdiocese
• Rome of the West, features photography of churches in the Archdiocese
• Eastern rites in the Archdiocese:
  • Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon (Maronite) Archived 2019-03-30 at the Wayback Machine
  • The Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma
  • Saint Nicholas Eparchy for Ukrainian Catholics

38°38′34″N 90°15′26″W / 38.64278°N 90.25722°W / 38.64278; -90.25722