Functional status Active Phone +94 21 2 222457 | Former name(s) St. Mary's Church Groundbreaking 1789 Opened 1794 | |
 | ||
Similar St Sebastian's Cathedral, Jaffna Fort, Naguleswaram temple, Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, Nallur Kandaswamy temple | ||
St. Mary's Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaffna located in Gurunagar, Jaffna of Sri Lanka.
History
Construction of St. Mary's Church began in 1789 and was completed in 1794. The first parish priest was Rev. Fr. Leonard Rebeiro. The church was built on the site of a thatched house that had previously served as a worshipping place for Jaffna's Catholics. By the early twentieth century the church, which was now a cathedral, had become too small to accommodate all its worshippers. Construction of a new cathedral began in 1939 but wasn't completed until 1975.
References
St. Mary's Cathedral, Jaffna Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA