Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston 175th Anniversary
A colorful banner features a dove, mountains, an open Bible, a chalice, and a host. Text reads: “Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston 1850-2025. Celebrating 175 Years of Hope.”.
A printed prayer for the 175th Anniversary of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, decorated with a red and gold crest at the top and a border of yellow floral designs.

Calendar of Events

July 19, 2026:  Closing Mass for the Diocese’s Anniversary Year at 10:30am (Basilica of the Co-Cathedral, Charleston)

Hymn Documents

Parish Resources

Diocesan History & Resources

Papal Bull

A historical document written in Latin with the title PIUS PP. IX. at the top, featuring ornate text, an official signature, a red embossed seal, and a date written in Roman numerals near the bottom.The document presented here is a Papal decree issued by Pope Pius IX. It’s written in formal ecclesiastical Latin and outlines the creation of a new episcopal see (diocese). Here is an English translation:

PIUS PP. IX.
(Pope Pius IX)

FOR A LASTING RECORD.
To provide for the spiritual needs of the faithful, We, moved by Our pastoral concern, have determined to erect a new episcopal see. Indeed, since it is not uncommon for faithful Catholics, because of great distances or difficulties, to be hindered from approaching their bishop or cathedral, We have deemed it wise to provide for their spiritual welfare by establishing a new bishopric.

Therefore, at the request of Our Venerable Brother James Roosevelt Bayley, Archbishop of Baltimore, and with the advice of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, We hereby erect and establish the city of Wheeling, in the state of Virginia (now West Virginia), as the seat of a new episcopal see.

This new see shall include the city of Wheeling and the surrounding counties—namely, the counties of Randolph, Pocahontas, Greenbrier, Monroe, Giles, Montgomery, Floyd, and Carroll—together with the faithful residing therein. These territories shall be separated from the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and entrusted to the newly erected diocese.

We decree that the new diocese of Wheeling shall enjoy all the rights, honors, privileges, and obligations of other episcopal sees. The bishop appointed to this see shall possess full authority, in spiritual and temporal matters, as any other residential bishop according to canon law.

All things to the contrary notwithstanding.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the 19th day of July in the year 1850, in the fifth year of Our Pontificate.

[Signed] Cardinal Lambruschini
A. Picchioni, Substituted

Verified to conform with the original which is preserved in the archives of the Secretary of Briefs.
At the Office of the Secretary of Briefs, on the 20th of November, 1880.

[Signed] Th. Card. Mertel