Concathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Bitola
In Bitola, the second city of North Macedonia, the Catholic community meets in the cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, shared seat of the diocese of Skopje. His history was born from the mission of the Vincentian (Lazarist) parents, who in the 19th century settled in the city to attend to the Catholics of the then Ottoman Empire.
🌹 Wonders and anecdotes
- The Vincentian missionaries (Lazarists) arrived in Bitola in the mid-19th century; in 1857 they acquired a building to make it a church, seed of the current Catholic community of the city.
- The first church was completed in 1870, but a fire destroyed it in 1900. The community did not surrender: the present neoGothic temple rose in 1909, and its tower was added between 1938 and 1940.
- It is a cathedral of the diocese of Skopje, whose main seat is the cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of the capital, reconstructed in 1977 after the earthquake of Skopje in 1963.
- To this day, Bitola retains one of the two historical parishes that the Vincentian mission kept for Catholics scattered on lands of Orthodox majority, a testimony of discreet and persevering fidelity.
Sacred Heart of Jesus
The cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Bitola keeps the memory of the Lazarist missionaries who sowed the Catholic faith in Macedonia. It is a sign of a small community that has been able to remain faithful for more than a century and a half.
"Sacred Heart of Jesus, in You I trust; Virgin Mary, keep the little flock of Bitola.
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