Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles, California
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (Spanish: Catedral de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles), informally known as the COLA or the Los Angeles Cathedral (Spanish: Catedral de Los Ángeles), is the metropolitan cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It serves as the mother church for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, as well as the seat of Archbishop José Horacio Gómez.
The structure replaced the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana, which was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Under Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, Our Lady of the Angels was begun in 1998 and dedicated on September 2, 2002. There was considerable controversy over both its deconstructivist and modern design, costs incurred in its construction and furnishing, and the archdiocese's decision to build a crypt under the cathedral.
The cathedral is named in honor of the Virgin Mary under the patronal title of "Our Lady of the Angels". The cathedral contains the relics of Saint Vibiana and tilma piece of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is the mother church to approximately five million professed Catholics in the archdiocese.
History
1876 to 1994
Throughout the 20th century, the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana served as the mother church for the Diocese of Los Angeles. Constructed in 1876, the capacity of the cathedral was soon outstripped by the growth of the Catholic population in Southern California.
The public source identifies “Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels” as catholic cathedral in Los Angeles, California. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cathedral, Lady and Angels.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1631067. VIAF identifies the subject as 149117399. The Library of Congress control number is n2002014978. Authority coordinates are 34.058, -118.246. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994, 1998, 2002 and 1876.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.