The Basilica of Saint Mary in the Old Town historic district, of Alexandria, Virginia, (United States) and is a minor basilica and parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington in Virginia. St. Mary's Basilica is the oldest Roman Catholic church in the Commonwealth of Virginia and located in one of its oldest cities in Old Town Alexandria. It was founded in 1795 by the Very Reverend Francis Ignatius Neale, S.J., first President of Georgetown University, (then known as Georgetown College) in present-day western Washington, D.C..