Cathedral of Santa Teresa del Niño Jesús de Bouaké
The Cathedral of Santa Teresa del Niño Jesus is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Bouaké, in the heart of Côte d'Ivoire. Dedicated to the holy Carmelite of Lisieux, patron of the missions, she was raised in the years of the country's birth and remains the center of an ecclesiastical province that covers 39 parishes.
🌹 Wonders and anecdotes
- The construction began on 30 November 1960, with the design of the Swiss architect Strobel; on 8 January 1961, Monsignor André-Pierre Duirat, of the Society of African Missions, blessed and solemnly placed the first stone.
- On 1 October 1962, the feast of St. Teresa, Monsignor René Kouassi, the first Moroccan priest of the diocese, opened the temple by singing the first great solemn Mass. It was consecrated in 1975 and received its bells in 1984.
- The construction keeps the memory of a sacrifice: on June 26, 1962, the Benedictine father Augustin De Soos died when the scaffolding was broken up as he was killing the stained glass, along with his assistant Jean- Joseph Dama, who died days later.
- The headquarters, born as apostolic vicariate in 1951 and diocese in 1955, was elevated to the metropolitan archdiocese on 19 December 1994; its current archbishop, Monsignor Jacques Assango Ahiwa, promoted the rehabilitation of the cathedral with a view to the centenary of evangelization held in 2025.
Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus
In Bouaké, the Cathedral of Santa Teresa del Niño Jesus unites the simplicity of the "walk" of Lisieux with the living history of the Marfiestra Church: a first stone of 1961, an inaugural mass at the feast of the saint and even the blood of a missionary delivered in its construction.
"St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, teach us to love like you; Mary, Queen of missions, pray for Africa.
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