St. Toma Syriac Catholic Cathedral

Church in Michigan, United States

42°28′57.5″N 83°23′54.3″W / 42.482639°N 83.398417°W / 42.482639; -83.398417Location25600 Drake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MichiganCountryUnited StatesDenominationCatholic ChurchSui iuris churchSyriac Catholic ChurchWebsitewww.martomami.comHistoryStatusCathedral
Parish churchDedicationThomas the ApostleDedicated2002ArchitectureArchitectural typeModernAdministrationDioceseOur Lady of Deliverance in the United StatesClergyBishop(s)Most Rev. Yousif HabashChancellorRev. Luke Edelen, O.S.B.

St. Toma Cathedral is a Syriac Catholic cathedral located in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States. It is the seat of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance in the United States.^[1] St. Toma is the first church erected outside of the Middle East to serve Syriac Catholics, who locally, were refugees from Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria.^[2] They initially used facilities of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit before acquiring a church building of their own.^[3] The property on which the present church is located was bought from the Archdiocese of Detroit. The foundation stones were laid in 2000 by Patriarch Ignatius Moses I Daoud, and the church was completed in 2002.

The eparchy was established by Pope John Paul II in 1995. A cathedral was established in the former St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Bayonne, New Jersey in 2011.^[4] In 2018, that church building was deconsecrated, and the property became part of a planned redevelopment project.^[5] St. Joseph Cathedral moved to the former St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, also in Bayonne. On July 1, 2022, Pope Francis approved moving the seat of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance from St. Joseph Cathedral in Bayonne to St. Toma. The move places the cathedral closer to the center of the Syriac Catholic population in the United States.^[2]

References

^ "St. Toma Syriac Catholic Cathedral". Giga Catholic. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
^ ^a ^b Michael Stechschulte (January 10, 2023). "St. Toma Syriac Cathedral in Farmington Hills is the new spiritual epicenter for 16,000 Syriac Catholics across U.S." Detroit Catholic. Detroit. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
^ "Parish History". St. Toma Syriac Catholic Cathedral. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
^ Michael T. Dempsey (January 5, 2011). "Roman Catholic church in Bayonne will now serve Syriac Catholics". The Jersey Journal. Secaucus. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
^ Chris Fry (30 May 2018). "Two-Pronged Development Coming to Church Property on Bayonne's Avenue E". Jersey Digs. Retrieved 2023-06-09.