History
The Archdiocese of Washington often prides itself in sharing the fact that the Society of Jesus celebrated the first Mass in British North America on its shores in 1634. During the colonial era however, Catholics would remain a persecuted people suffering the wrath of oppression allowed by local penal laws.
Upon the establishment of the United States by its founding fathers, the Jesuit, John Carroll, was elected the first bishop of the newly created diocese which would later become the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, as the entity was known then, had jurisdiction over all American Catholics, including present-day City of Washington.
In 1858, Mount Olivet Cemetery was established in Washington, D.C., the first Catholic cemetery to serve all the parishes in the area.
In 1939, Pope Pius XII separated the City of Washington from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and created two Archdioceses (Baltimore and Washington) under the oversight of one archbishop. The process of separation was officially concluded on November 15, 1947. The Archdiocese of Washington became a metropolitan see on October 12, 1965, when the Diocese of Saint Thomas became its suffragen see.
To manage Mount Olivet and three other cemeteries, in 1978 the archdiocese created and incorporated Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Washington; 25 years later, All Souls Cemetery in Germantown, Maryland became its fifth archdiosesan cemetery.
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