There are about 170 miles between the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, N.Y. The two buildings share the same ecclesiastical architect, Irish immigrant Patrick Keely.

Blessed Pope Pius IX created the Albany Diocese on April 23, 1847, when he separated 30,000 square miles in the eastern half of upstate New York from the Diocese of New York. On the same date, the western region of upstate was designated as the Diocese of Buffalo.

The church of St. Mary in the Empire State's capital city was named the cathedral; it would be a temporary cathedral, as the diocese's first Bishop John McCloskey immediately set out on his arrival to enlist Patrick Keely to design the cathedral for Albany.

Meanwhile, in the Diocese of Boston, the rapid expansion necessitated a much larger Cathedral. Initially, Bishop John B. Fitzpatrick, our third bishop, wanted to begin the project, but the looming Civil War placed it on the to-do list for our fourth Bishop John J. Williams, who started the project with a groundbreaking in 1866. This move meant that the original cathedral designed by Charles Bulfinch on Franklin Street would be replaced by a newer one designed also by Keely.

When the Albany Diocese was erected in 1847, it shared its entire eastern border with the Boston Diocese, its northern border with the St. Lawrence River, and its southern border with the Diocese of New York and the Diocese of Philadelphia.

As the years passed and the Church grew in numbers, spurred on by massive immigrations from Ireland, Germany, Poland and later from Italy, the diocesan borders changed.

For Albany, the changes were the creation of the Diocese of Ogdensburg in 1872, also by Blessed Pius IX, reducing Albany's 20,830 square miles by more than 4,600 square miles. An additional 5,760 square miles were separated from Albany's original western borders when Pope Leo XIII erected the new Diocese of Syracuse in 1886, leaving the diocese its present 10,422 square miles, about the same size as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In neighboring New England, there were even more border changes. In 1853, Burlington was established as a see encompassing all the Green Mountain State, while Portland was established that same year, taking both states of Maine and New Hampshire from the Boston Diocese. The Diocese of Hartford was created in 1843. A second diocese was created in 1870 for Massachusetts, when the five westernmost counties were assigned to the new Diocese of Springfield. So the Albany diocese no longer bordered Boston but now borders Springfield, which remains the case to this day.

Both sees first bishops have a few interesting similarities.

Bishop John McCloskey was the first native New Yorker to be ordained a priest for the New York Diocese. He was named the coadjutor Bishop of New York and ordained bishop in Old St. Patrick Cathedral at the age of 34. When the new Diocese of Albany was created in 1847, the pope named him the first bishop. Ultimately, he was transferred back to New York, where he was named its fifth bishop and second archbishop in 1864. In 1875, he was the first American named to the College of Cardinals. Fun fact: John McCloskey was baptized in Manhattan by a young Jesuit priest named Benedict Joseph Fenwick, who would later be Boston's second bishop and who would return to New York in 1844 to be one of the co-consecrators of the infant he had baptized 34 years prior!

Boston's first Bishop John Cheverus was born in France and came to the United States as a missionary, spending his missionary years in New England. He was named our first bishop in 1808 and eventually returned to France, first as the bishop of Montauban (1823), then as metropolitan archbishop of Bordeaux (1826), and was created a cardinal in 1836.

As Bishop O'Connell sets out on his new service as Albany's Eleventh Bishop, he has a great foundation of previous leaders on which he can stand and build. Bishop O'Connell will be the first bishop of Albany who was not previously born in the Empire State or served as a priest or bishop in Albany itself, or in one or another of the state's seven other dioceses.