9 of the Largest Cathedrals In The US

The U.S. has never had a national church, and the Constitution protects religious liberty, so the country’s grandest sanctuaries were built the hard way: funded by parishioners, dioceses, and private donors. Many of America’s largest church buildings rose with immigrant Catholic communities who wanted to leave a lasting legacy of faith for future generations.

Step inside these giants and you’ll find jaw-dropping details: sprawling mosaics, dizzying geometry, a majestic Spanish Colonial-style shrine, and even a Darth Vader gargoyle.

Read on for the 10 largest church buildings in the United States, ranked by square footage.

9. Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine

Although it is called a shrine, this facility also serves as a Catholic church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is named after Stanley Rother, a local priest from Oklahoma City who was murdered in 1981 during a mission to Guatemala.

The church was built atop a golf course from 2019 to 2023 in the Spanish Colonial style, befitting Stanley's service in Latin America. It has a floor area of 35,000 square feet and a 103-foot nave. The walls are white, with two bell towers and a dome. Within the shrine are a church, a shrine, and a museum that catalogues Stanley Rother's life. His body is placed within the altar of a smaller chapel on the eastern side of the church.

8. Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral

The Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral was built in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2017. When the Diocese of Raleigh was set up in 1924, there were only a few thousand Catholics. With the rapid growth of the Catholic population over the years, the diocese needed a larger building, and the Holy Name of Jesus was established to accommodate all those people. ,

The cathedral measures around 44,000 square feet and is 173 feet tall. Built in the Romanesque Revival style, its most noteworthy feature is the 60-foot copper dome, adorned with Corinthian columns and 16 arched windows.

The interior features 90 stained-glass windows, the largest measuring 18 feet tall. 40 of these windows are from the 1920s and were removed from the Ascension Catholic Church and placed in the cathedral.

7. Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis

This cathedral is both named after the city it is based in and Saint Louis of France. It was constructed in 1914 to replace the older Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France. Its floor area is 46,420 square feet, with the exterior being 365 feet long and 204 feet wide.

The most impressive feature of this cathedral is its mosaics. There are 83,000 square feet of mosaics painstakingly installed with 41.5 million glass tesserae. The cathedral claims to have the world's largest collection of mosaics.

The cathedral was also designated as a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1997, so it has a Tintinnabulum bell within to represent this status. The cathedral used to have a statue called The Angel of Harmony on its side lawn, featuring an African American angel and a diverse group of children beneath him, representing racial harmony and peace, but it was tragically destroyed by a vandal in 2024.

6. Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart

Located in Newark, New Jersey, this Catholic cathedral rivals any in Europe both in size and beauty. Construction began in 1898 and finished in 1954 for this French Gothic Revival structure.

Its most impressive feature is the 36-foot rose window right over the main entrance, one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere. Many of its features were brought in from Europe, including stained-glass windows from Munich, Germany; bells from Padua, Italy; bronze doors from Rome; and an altar made of Italian marble. However, it maintains a humble American heart with its pews made of Appalachian oak. Its size is 45,000 square feet, 365 feet long, and 165 feet wide. Its towers are 232 feet tall.

The saints for the five chapels in the cathedral were chosen to reflect the immigrant communities who built the church, from St. Patrick for the British Isles to St. Lucy Filippini for Italy and Portugal, St Boniface for German speakers, St. Stanislaus for Polish, Slovak, and Hungarian, and St. Anne for Hispanic, African, and Asian immigrants.

5. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

This Catholic church is unique on this list for its modern design, which suits its location in Los Angeles. It was built in 2002 to replace the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana, which was damaged in a 1994 earthquake. It is built in modern and deconstructivist styles, which are immediately apparent in its tan walls and sharp angles.

The nave also features more modern elements, including low-hanging lights, polished floors, and angled walls. It also has the largest number of alabaster windows in the world, and has hundreds of non-repeating angles spread throughout the building. The church has a total square footage of 64,000, and a length of 333 feet.

The cathedral has not been without controversy: a large group sought to restore the older cathedral, while many disagreed with its more modernist elements. In recent years, the church has also seen protests, largely due to concerns about the treatment of the immigrant population in Los Angeles.

4. Cathedral of Saint Paul

This cathedral is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and acts as a co-cathedral to the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis. It was constructed from 1906 to 1915 in the Beaux-Arts style. This cathedral is actually the fourth structure with that name, as the first was built in 1840 as a simple log cabin. As the Catholic population grew, so did the need for larger and more impressive buildings, culminating in the current cathedral.

The Cathedral of Saint Paul is named after the Apostle Paul from the Bible, and measures 307 feet in length, 216 in width, and 306.5 feet in height.

There are several design elements throughout the church, including a 120-foot copper-clad dome and a copper-clay lantern on top. The exterior walls are made of granite, while the interior chapels' main walls are of Italian Botticino marble. The interior was built so that parishioners could easily see the altar and the Mass. Around the altar are seven bronze grilles that symbolize humans responding to God's grace and love.

3. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Washington, D.C., is home to the largest Roman Catholic Church in America: the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. In 1846, the Catholic Bishops of America declared Mary as the patroness of the U.S. and aimed to create a church bearing her name. The foundation stone was laid in 1920, with the church being consecrated in 1959. Since then, several elements have been added, the latest being 24 tons of Venetian glass placed inside the Trinity Dome in 2017 to craft a massive mosaic.

The church's style is Byzantine Revival and Romanesque Revival, with the former evident in its dome and tower, and the Romanesque elements evident in the curves of the basilica's grand facade. It is 459 feet long by 240 feet wide and 329 feet tall.

The church consists of 82 individual Marian chapels, such as The Immaculate Heart of Mary chapel with a hand-carved wooden medallion of Mary with the Christ child and The Our Mother of Africa chapel, which honors Mary as a sign of hope to enslaved African Americans.

2. Washington National Cathedral

This vast Episcopal Cathedral sits among a sea of awe-inspiring buildings in Washington, D.C. It was first approved in 1893 under a Congressional charter, with the first foundation stone laid in 1907 during a ceremony attended by President Theodore Roosevelt. Services began in 1912 and continue to this day. The cathedral was considered structurally complete in 1990.

Built in the Neo-Gothic style, it has three towers, flying buttresses, and many quirky American characteristics. For example, one of the gargoyles on the cathedral is none other than Darth Vader from Star Wars. In addition, one of its stained glass windows was designed to honor the scientists and technicians of America, featuring several artistic flourishes representing the depths of space and a real moon rock embedded in the window.

The cathedral's dimensions are 518 feet long by 290 feet wide across the transepts. Its nave is 104 feet high and 41 feet wide. The overall floor space is 83,013 square feet. Throughout its history, the cathedral has hosted several important state services, including memorial services for Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Regaon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter.

1. Cathedral of St. John the Divine

This Manhattan cathedral is the largest in the U.S., despite technically being unfinished. It was founded in 1892 with a mixture of Byzantine Revival and Romanesque Revival Styles. In the 1900s, the Episcopal congregation planned to revamp the church in the Gothic Revival style by adding a nave. However, that nave still remains uncompleted to this day, with only a tower nestled on its southwestern corner.

This church is 601 feet long by 232 feet wide, and 124 feet tall. It is made of stone, granite, and limestone. It is often described as one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world, and among the largest churches overall, with a floor area of about 121,000 square feet.

The church is actually proud of its unfinished nature, as it fits the character of the medieval Gothic churches it was based on. These medieval churches took several hundred years and generations to finish. The church offers blessings for animals on the first Sunday of October as part of the St. Francis Day of Blessing of the Animals, and in April, celebrates Manhattan's rich cycling culture with the Blessing of the Bikes.

Beautiful Faith and Heritage

Even if you don't share the Catholic or Anglican faith of these churches, you can still appreciate the skill and dedication that led others to create these beautiful spaces. Whether that's gazing at the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis or entering under the massive rose window of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, there are many different types of spaces to be seen. These churches also run the gamut of modern places like the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels or traditional spaces such as the Immaculata. These churches all welcome visitors, so you can check them out and appreciate them as architectural and cultural monuments even if you aren't a part of their faith. Either way, you'll feel inspired.