It was dedicated on December 25, 1843, but the diocese had to wait until 1882 for the building to be completed, forty years after construction commenced.

[3] In 2007 the body of Bishop John J. Chanche, S.S. the first Catholic bishop of Mississippi, was exhumed from a Baltimore, Maryland catholic cemetery and returned to Natchez to be reinterred in St. Mary Basilica's church yard.

[5] The brick structure is two stories in height, and it was constructed on a partially raised basement.

The central square tower that is capped with a spire is embedded into the structure, and it has a recessed Gothic-arched entrance.

This article about a church or other Christian place of worship in Mississippi is a stub.