The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester.

Joseph Cretin, had celebrated the first recorded Mass in town the previous year and sent the Rev.

St. Thomas parish had two church buildings in its history, the second of which was completed in the early 1870s.

St. Joseph parish was established in 1862 to serve the spiritual needs of Winona's German Catholics.

As the diocese grew, it was determined that St. Thomas was not an adequate facility for a cathedral.