[2] Prior to the American Revolution, present day Kentucky was part of the British Province of Virginia.

To prevent hostility with Native American peoples in the region, the British did not allow European settlers to move west of the Appalachian Mountains.

[3] The first Catholic presence in Kentucky may have been a group of 25 families who traveled from Maryland in 1785 to Goodwin's Station in present-day Nelson County.

[3] The first Catholic church west of the Appalachian Mountains, Holy Cross, was constructed at Pottinger Creek in 1792.

[5] In 1793, Stephen T. Badin estimated that 300 Catholic families were living in Kentucky, clustered in six settlements around Bardstown.

[9] The first German Catholic church in Louisville, St. Boniface, was founded in 1836; it is today the oldest continually operating parish in the city.

[10] To address the shortage of clergy in his diocese, Flaget in 1835 left for Europe, where he would spend the next four years recruiting seminarians to come to Kentucky.

In 1848, Pope Pius IX appointed Martin Spalding as coadjutor bishop in Louisville to assist Flaget.

When Spalding became bishop, the diocese had a Catholic population exceeding 30,000, with 43 churches, ten chapels, and 40 priests.

[9] By the late 19th century, large numbers of German and Irish Catholic immigrants were arriving in Louisville.

They claimed that immigrant Catholics were planning to overthrow the US Government and that Spalding was hiding weapons for this insurrection in his churches.

Louisville Mayor John Barbee, himself a member of the Know Nothing Party, saved the Cathedral of the Assumption from destruction during the riot.

[15] Following the riot, Spalding wrote, "I entreat all to pause and reflect, to commit no violence, to believe no idle rumors, and to cultivate that peace and love which are characteristics of the religion of Christ.

"[16] In 1861, during the American Civil War, Spalding closed St. Joseph's College and converted its facilities into a military hospital for soldiers.

[17] During his two-year tenure, Lavialle conducted diocesan visitations, invited the Dominican Fathers to the diocese and erected four churches in Louisville.

William McCloskey, rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, was appointed bishop of Louisville in 1868 by Pius IX.

"[19] For his efforts and those of the religious sisters and Knights of Columbus in Louisville during the pandemic, General Fred Thaddeus Austin of Camp Zachary Taylor wrote him a public letter of gratitude.

[6] In 1923, the Vatican appointed John A. Floersh of Nashville as coadjutor bishop in the diocese to assist O'Donoghue.

The second archbishop of Louisville was Bishop Thomas J. McDonough from the Diocese of Savannah, named by Pope Paul VI in 1967.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas C. Kelly from the Archdiocese of Washington as the next archbishop of Louisville.

[25][26] Kelly led the restoration of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, pushed for interfaith dialogue, and worked for increased lay person leadership in the archdiocese.

He started a Campaign for Excellence program that reversed the enrollment decline at Catholic schools in the archdiocese.

Kelly admitted to developing an opioid addiction while recovering from surgery for lung cancer, only recognizing the problem after being confronted by his doctors.

[28] In July 2019, Kurtz underwent treatment for urothelial cancer, which required a three-month medical leave of absence from the archdiocese.

[34] In June 2003, the Archdiocese of Louisville paid $25.7 million directly from its own assets to settle claims of sexual abuse by its clergy from the 1940s to 1997.

[35] Joseph Hemmerle, a priest from the archdiocese, was convicted in 2016 of inappropriately touching a ten-year-old boy in 1973 while serving as director at Camp Tall Trees in Brandenburg.