The Howard Farm

In 1634, a group of Catholic immigrants arrived in the present day state of Maryland after fleeing England due to religious persecution. They settled, farmed, and chartered religious organizations until 1785. They then formed a group known as the "League of Sixty" and left Maryland to settle other lands. They left in three groups, the last being led by Edward Howard in 1787 and settling in Bardstown, Kentucky. There, in 1794, Edward's son Thomas Howard and his wife Ann set up a plantation of 109 acres, which grew to 369.5 acres by 1807. Thomas built a one-room log house on the property in 1795. Later, the house was divided into three rooms and a second story was added. The Howards had no children, and the farm was willed to the Catholic Church when Thomas died in 1810. Thomas's will stipulated that the church received ownership of the land upon his death, but that his wife was to remain on the property and be cared for until she remarried or died.

Diocese of Bardstown

Pope Pius VII created the D iocese of Bardstown in 1808 along with the dioceses of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. All four dioceses were created out of territory of the original diocese of Baltimore. The French Sulpician priest Benedict Joseph Flaget was appointed the first bishop of Bardstown, arriving in Kentucky in June 1811. When he arrived in Bardstown, Bishop Flaget chose the Howard farm as the site for the beginnings of Catholicism in Bardstown.

Bishop Flaget moved the seat of the diocese from Bardstown to Louisville in 1841. In 1937, the Diocese of Louisville was elevated to an archdiocese. The original territory for which Bishop Flaget had pastoral responsibility is now part of over forty dioceses and archdioceses, including Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Detroit.

St. Thomas Seminary

St. Thomas Seminary began on a flatboat in the Ohio River as Bishop Flaget, along with Father John Baptist David and a few seminarians, sailed from Pittsburgh. Upon arriving in Bardstown, Bishop Flaget and Father David established the seminary in the log house built by Thomas Howard in 1795. They remained in this log house until a larger brick seminary was built in order to house the greater number of students. It served as a major seminary until 1819, when the major seminary moved to St. Joseph and St. Thomas became a preparatory seminary. The St. Thomas preparatory seminary remained in operation until 1869 when all of the students were removed to the main seminary.

St. Thomas Church

Construction of St. Thomas Church began in 1812 and was completed in 1816. Seminarians participated in much of the construction; the bricks for the church were formed and fired on site. Bishop Flaget chose St. Thomas for the title of the church in honor of Thomas Howard's patron saint. When first built, it served as the seminary chapel and as a parish church for the local Catholics. St. Thomas Church served as the "Diocesan Center” until St. Joseph Cathedral was completed in 1819.

Sisters of Charity of Nazareth

In 1812, Teresa Carrico and Elizabeth Wells founded a women's religious community named the Sisters of Charity. They were given a log cabin on the St. Thomas property located approximately 1/2 mile north the seminary. The next year, their membership had grown to six and Catherine Spalding was named the first Mother Superior. In 1814, the sisters opened Nazareth Academy as a school for girls. In 1822, the sisters moved from St. Thomas to their current location in Nazareth, three miles north of Bardstown. The brick schoolhouse built for the girl's school was used for boys after the sisters moved.

The sisters expanded their work throughout the nation and the world. They came to establish St. Mary and Elizabeth’s in Louisville (1915), St. Joseph’s in Lexington (1918), Nazareth College in Louisville (1920), Mount St. Agnes’ mental hospital (1913), and Our Lady of Peace mental hospital (1951). The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth remain an active religious order; in addition to the United States, SCN sisters currently live and minister in India, Nepal, Belize, and Botswana.

St. Thomas Orphanage

In 1850, Bishop Martin J. Spalding delegated Father Francis Chambige to establish a home for dependent boys; the Sisters of Charity did the same for girls. Two sisters were assigned to the farm in order to take care of the boys until 1857, when the Brothers of the Sacred Heart took over. The first orphans to arrive lived in the seminary, but when it became too crowded, the seminary gave some farmland for an orphanage and vegetable garden. During the Civil War, soldiers from both the North and the South swept through and took the food from the orphanage.

St. Thomas Orphanage provided a home and education for more than ten thousand boys over its history. The home remained in operation at St. Thomas until 1889 when it was closed following a devastating fire. The orphanage relocated to the city of Bardstown and then moved to Louisville, merging with St. Vincent orphanage for girls. St.Thomas-St. Vincent orphanage continued operation until 1984.