Basilica of St. James – Jamestown, North Dakota
After starting out in a railroad boxcar and a one room school house along with other places the Catholics that had moved into the James and Pipestem River area (now Jamestown) finally built the present church in 1914. The American gothic-style church is 140 feet long and 50 feet wide (70 feet wide at the trancepts.) It is 42 feet high and can seat 650 people and another 100 in the choir loft. The foundation was made of trimmed granite, rock faced, and the superstructure is of pressed Hebron brick and Bedford stone trimmings. The windows were plain glass at first but soon were replaced with stained glass.
Although some thought the building to be too grandious for the community of Jamestown it is truly a spectacular structure with a great deal of history.
St. James was elevated as a Minor Basilica July 23, 1989. The Apostolic Brief, which raised the Church of St. James to the status of a Minor Basilica is located at the southwest entrance of the building. "Basilica" is a title assigned to certain churches by the Holy See because of their antiquity, dignity, historical importance, or significance as centers of worship.
A basilica is intimately linked to the Chair of Peter. It’s to be a center of special liturgical and pastoral ministry. For example, Mass is generally offered in a basilica several times a day, frequent confessions are scheduled, basilicas are the destinations of pilgrims who wish to acknowledge by their coming the universal nature of the Church founded upon the rock of Peter, the Pope. The liturgical documents call for great solemnity and perfection in the celebration of mass at a basilica- requiring that especially on holy days one or more of the Masses be in Latin. When such Masses are sung, they are to use Gregorian melodies or sacred polyphony. Another activity proper to a Basilica is the holding of programs that make known the documents expressing the mind of the Pope and the Magisterium of the Church.
St. James was the 34th church in the United States to be designated as a Minor Basilica.
The Basilica of St. James
622 1st Avenue S
Jamestown, ND 58401
Phone: 701-252-0119
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