Saint Peter's Cathedral, Rabat
The cathedral of Morocco's small, living Catholic Church, in an archdiocese named for martyrs killed eight centuries ago.
- Location
- Rabat, Morocco 34.0142° N · 6.8367° W
- Type
- Catholic cathedral, seat of the Archdiocese of Rabat Twentieth-century cathedral in the centre of Rabat
A small Church with a long memory
The Catholic Church in Morocco is tiny and almost entirely made up of people from elsewhere: sub-Saharan African students and migrants, European residents, workers. It does not seek converts and says so. What it does is serve, and pray, and remain. The cathedral is where that community gathers in the capital. It is also the seat of an archdiocese that took five thirteenth-century Franciscan martyrs as its patrons, which tells you how it understands its own history.
The Church of Morocco today
Catholic structures in Morocco were reorganised in the twentieth century, and the apostolic vicariate of Rabat became an archdiocese in 1955. After independence the Church gave up most of its institutions and settled into a much smaller and quieter existence. John Paul II came in 1985 and spoke to a stadium of young Moroccans; Francis came in March 2019 and met the Catholic community, migrants and the country's leadership. The archbishop, Cardinal Cristobal Lopez Romero, a Salesian, has led the archdiocese since the end of 2017. The patronal feast of the archdiocese belongs to the Marrakech martyrs, which binds the cathedral in the capital to the Franciscan parish in the south.
The Archdiocese of Rabat was established as an apostolic vicariate in 1923 and raised to an archdiocese on September 14, 1955. It is immediately subject to the Holy See.
Its patron saints are the Franciscan martyrs Berard, Peter, Accursius, Adjutus and Otho, killed at Marrakech in 1220.
Pope John Paul II visited Morocco in August 1985 and Pope Francis in March 2019.
The archbishop is Cardinal Cristobal Lopez Romero, S.D.B., appointed in December 2017.
An archdiocese whose patron saints are five friars killed in Marrakech in 1220 does not have to be told that its Church is older than its buildings.
A cathedral parish. Mass, the sacraments, and the ordinary work of a diocese. The Church in Morocco is legally free to serve its own foreign and migrant faithful, and it is careful about that boundary.
Do Not Miss
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The patronal connection
This archdiocese is named for the Marrakech martyrs. Go south and see where they died.
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The congregation
Overwhelmingly sub-Saharan African. This is what the Church in Morocco is now.
- That the Church here is a Church of migrants
- That it is careful, by conviction and by law, about proselytism
- That its patrons are martyrs of the thirteenth century, not founders of the twentieth
How to Visit
The cathedral stands in central Rabat. Mass times are not reliably published online for Moroccan parishes; contact the archdiocese or the cathedral directly. Pair a Moroccan pilgrimage with Marrakech for the Franciscan martyrs and Midelt for the Trappist community.
- Mass for the Catholic community of the capital
- Prayer for the Church in Morocco and for the country
- The witness of a Church that serves rather than seeks to grow by conversion
Contact the archdiocese; times are not reliably published.
Moroccan Catholic parishes do not consistently publish Mass times online. The Archdiocese of Rabat is the authority for the cathedral's schedule. The Church in Morocco serves foreign residents and migrants and is careful about proselytism, which Moroccan law restricts; visitors should respect that.
- Status
- Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Rabat
- Patrons of the archdiocese
- The five Franciscan martyrs of Marrakech
- Papal visits
- John Paul II 1985; Francis 2019
- Mass times
- Not reliably published; contact the archdiocese
Current access
Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects
Tomb and Burial
- No saint is buried here.
Relics and Sacred Tradition
- No relic claim is published for the cathedral.
Sacred Objects
- The cathedral church itself, as the seat of the archdiocese
Connected Saints
Map
Hero image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (Manfred Ewel, CC BY-SA 4.0). Mass times are deliberately not asserted: no authoritative published schedule was found. This is a brief record by design. It is here as the seat of the archdiocese and because the Franciscan martyrs of Marrakech are its patrons, not as a pilgrimage claim in its own right. Sources: GCatholic for archdiocesan status, patrons, papal visits and ordinary.
Awaiting source.
September 17, 2026
Photo credits
- Hero. Manfred Ewel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.