St Louis' Most Famous Italian: Giuseppe Rosati

Painting of Bishop Giuseppe Rosati. Credit: Archdiocese of St Louis

MICHAEL J CROSS
President, Italian Community of St Louis

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Italian immigrants and their descendants left an indelible mark on St Louis, Missouri. It is worth pausing to honor these unsung heroes whose lives quietly strengthened their communities in lasting ways. There have been many famous Italians and Americans of Italian descent who have made St Louis their home. However, only one Italian changed our city forever. That figure is Bishop Giuseppe Rosati, a Vincentian missionary who became the foundational architect of the Catholic Church in the American Midwest and the First Bishop of St Louis.

Born on January 12, 1789, in Sora, Italy, in the central province of Lazio, Rosati entered the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) at Monte Citorio in Rome and was ordained a priest in 1811. His trajectory changed when his theology professor, Felix de Andreis, persuaded him to join a pioneering mission to the United States. Arriving in Baltimore in 1816, Rosati studied English - having already mastered French - and taught theology in Kentucky before moving to Perryville, Missouri, in 1818, where he served as the rector of St. Mary’s of the Barrens Seminary, the first institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River. 

Recognized for his immense administrative talent and pastoral zeal, Rosati was consecrated as coadjutor bishop in 1824 under Bishop Louis DuBourg and officially became the first Bishop of the Diocese of St. Louis in 1826 when Pope Leo XII divided the massive Louisiana Territory, of which St Louis was the capital. His new jurisdiction was geographically staggering, encompassing Missouri, western Illinois, and all American territory west of the Mississippi River and north of Louisiana. Despite the daunting frontier conditions, Rosati systematically transformed his diocese by securing papal dispensations to allow the Jesuits to charge tuition and fully establish Saint Louis University. He also successfully recruited various religious communities, including the Sisters of Charity, whom he famously invited to open the first hospital west of the Mississippi in 1828. 

Rosati’s most enduring physical legacy St Louis was the construction of the Cathedral of St. Louis, King of France, now known as the Old Cathedral. He planned, financed, and supervised the erection of this monumental structure, which stood as the first cathedral built west of the Mississippi River. Beyond bricks and mortar, Rosati extended his missionary operations through the Mississippi Valley and across the Rocky Mountains into the Oregon and Texas territories, while also executing significant pastoral duties nationally by participating in the first four Provincial Councils of the American Church.  

In his final years, Rosati's exceptional diplomatic capabilities were called upon directly by the Holy See. In 1840, Pope Gregory XVI—a former classmate of Rosati's—appointed him as an Apostolic Delegate to negotiate a delicate concordat with the government of Haiti, a mission he completed with notable success. After traveling to Rome to deliver his report, Rosati fell severely ill, likely with tuberculosis. While attempting to return to his beloved St Louis in the American frontier, his deteriorating health forced him to turn back to Italy, where he died in Rome on September 25, 1843, at the age of 54. Initially buried in Europe, his remains were later returned to the United States in 1954 and reinterred beneath the main altar of the Old Cathedral in St. Louis, resting permanently within the heart of the church community he spent his life building. Today, Rosati’s Cathedral sits right below the St Louis Arch, both icons of our city.  

In recent memory, on November 3, 2019, the Italian Community of St Louis honored Bishop Rosati, in coordination with the Archdiocese of St Louis and the Consulate of Italy in Chicago, with a celebration of the 230th Anniversary of his birth with a solemn Mass in Italian celebrated by Fr. Mirco Sosio, then Chaplain of the Italian Catholic community. 

Coincidentally, 2026 is not only the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the 80th Anniversary of the Italian Republic, it is also the 200th Anniversary of the founding of the Archdiocese of St Louis by Bishop Giuseppe Rosati. It is therefore very fitting that we honor this brave Italian man, the first bishop of St Louis, whose legacy continues to inspire St Louisans of all ages.