St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows is a Nashville landmark and one of the first Catholic Church buildings constructed in Tennessee. The church served as the second Cathedral of the Diocese of Nashville from 1847-1914. The oldest extant church building in downtown Nashville, St. Mary's dates to 1844-47. Its architect was Adolphus Heiman, a German immigrant who designed several major Nashville buildings, including the State Asylum, during the late antebellum era. Heiman chose a Greek Revival temple style for St. Mary's, which features a gable front entrance of two fluted Ionic columns supporting a classical pediment.   Richard Pius Miles, O.P. (1791-1860), the first Catholic Bishop of Nashville, is primarily responsible for the construction of St. Mary's. Consecrated bishop at Bardstown, Kentucky in 1838, Miles arrived in Nashville that same year and was the only Catholic priest in the state of Tennessee. He led the state’s growing Catholic population until his death in 1860, when he was buried beneath the cathedral.

In 1926 the Nashville firm of Asmus & Clark renovated both the exterior and interior of St. Mary's, finishing the west facade in local limestone and altering the original octagonal belfry. In 1972 the congregation moved the cast iron casket of Bishop Miles to a small chapel in the church's northwest corner. St. Mary's celebrated its 165th anniversary in 2012.

Fr. John Sims Baker was installed as the pastor of St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows Church in August. A graduate of Vanderbilt School of Law and the University of the South in Sewanee, Fr. John Sims Baker was ordained in 1994 upon the completion of his seminary studies at The Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio. He has served in a number of parishes in the Diocese of Nashville before being assigned Chaplain at Vanderbilt in 2006, a position he still holds.Fr. Baker grew up in the small town of Ashland City Tennessee, where his father was a judge. His Mom, Dad, sister and he were a devout Episcopalian family. His sister was the first to become Catholic, right after college graduation. Shortly thereafter, she entered the convent and became a Dominican sister. Fr. Baker began taking instructions in the Catholic faith prior to the start of Law School. Two short years after his own First Communion, he and his sister were the sponsors for their parents when they joined the Catholic Church in 1988.

Check out Fr. Baker's blog here.

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