Saint Raymonds Maronite Cathedral, Saint Louis

Saint Raymond's Maronite Cathedral is a significant religious site. It is a co-cathedral of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, along with Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon-St. Peter Cathedral in Los Angeles. The Maronite Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See in Rome, and Saint Raymond's serves as the seat of the Eparchy, which covers the western United States.

The history of Saint Raymond's dates back to the late 19th century, when Lebanese and Syrian immigrants began to settle along the Mississippi River in Saint Louis. The community established Saint Anthony the Hermit Parish in 1898, and a group of immigrants from Hadchit, Lebanon, secured property on LaSalle Street to found Saint Raymond's Church. Father Joseph Karam came from Hadchit the following year to be the parish's first pastor. A parish hall was built in 1951, and the present church was completed in 1975.

Father Robert Shaheen, who had been at Saint Raymond's since 1967, was named bishop of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in 2000. The following year, Saint Raymond's was named a co-cathedral, and a pastoral center was completed in 2002 to serve as the headquarters of the Eparchy. The shrine to Our Lady of Saint Louis was dedicated in 2007, and the Maronite Heritage Institute was opened in 2011. These additions and expansions have helped to solidify Saint Raymond's as an important religious and cultural center for the Maronite Catholic community in the United States.

One notable event in the history of Saint Raymond's Cathedral occurred in 2014 when the Rev. Wissam Akiki was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Elias Zaidan. This was significant because Akiki was the first married Maronite priest to be ordained in the United States in nearly a century. His ordination was approved by Pope Francis, and it served as a powerful symbol of the Maronite Catholic Church's commitment to tradition and adaptability.