On 8 April 1808, Pope Pius VII concurrently erected the Diocese of Bardstown, the Diocese of Boston, the Diocese of New York, and the Diocese of Philadelphia in territory taken from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, and simultaneously elevated the Diocese of Baltimore to a metropolitan archdiocese with the four new dioceses as its suffragans. At that time, Bardstown, Kentucky was a thriving frontier settlement. (Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the U.S. in April 2008 celebrated the bicentenary of this event). The initial territory of the Diocese of Bardstown included most of the new states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan — the western territories of America to the Mississippi River and the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The same pope appointed Benedict Joseph Flaget as the first Bishop of Bardstown.