The Diocese of Fort Wayne (now Fort Wayne–South Bend) and its cathedral

Erected 8 January 1857 — cathedral dedicated 8 December 1860

The see: Until 1857 all Indiana belonged to the Diocese of Vincennes. On 8 January 1857 the Holy See erected the Diocese of Fort Wayne from its northern half. The first bishop, John Henry Luers of Cincinnati, was appointed on 22 September 1857 and consecrated on 10 January 1858; he arrived to find St. Augustine's its cathedral. The little frame cathedral burned in early 1859. Bishop Luers and Father Julian Benoit — who designed the building himself — raised a permanent cathedral on the same square: cornerstone laid Trinity Sunday, 19 June 1859; the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception dedicated 8 December 1860, at a cost of about 54,000 dollars, with a further 9,000 for pews, organ and altars. The cathedral is the oldest church building standing in Fort Wayne, and the first four bishops of the diocese are buried in its crypt.

The succession, in brief: John Henry Luers (1857–1871); Joseph Gregory Dwenger (1872–1893), under whom the diocese's schools and orphanages were built out; Joseph Rademacher (1893–1900), transferred from Nashville; Herman Joseph Alerding (1900–1924), the diocese's historian; John Francis Noll (1925–1956), founder of Our Sunday Visitor and given the personal title of Archbishop in 1953, in whose tenure the Diocese of Lafayette was carved from Fort Wayne's territory in 1944; Leo Aloysius Pursley (1956–1976), in whose tenure, in 1960, the diocese was renamed Fort Wayne–South Bend, with St. Matthew's in South Bend as co-cathedral; William Edward McManus (1976–1985); John Michael D'Arcy (1985–2009); and Kevin Carl Rhoades (appointed 14 November 2009, installed 13 January 2010), who in the 2020s also serves as secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The diocese today covers fourteen counties of northern Indiana and counts eighty-four parishes. Bishops Luers, Dwenger and Noll appear as biographies in the People record, and the diocese's schools are in the Schools section.

Sources:

1. Today's Catholic, cathedral 150th-anniversary history (5 December 2010), from the diocesan record — erection 8 January 1857, the cornerstone and dedication, the construction cost, the 1944 and 1960 changes.
2. "Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend," Wikipedia, with GCatholic.org's diocesan entries — the bishop list and its dates (Luers appointed 22 September 1857, consecrated 1858), the eighty-four parishes and fourteen counties.
3. "Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Fort Wayne, Indiana)," Wikipedia — St. Augustine's as cathedral, the 1859 fire, Benoit as designer.
4. Historic-structures.com, cathedral entry — the oldest church building in the city, the crypt burials.