Pioneer Bishops of North Carolina

The hierarchy was not established in North Carolina until 1924.  For more information about North Carolina, see my blog of January 10, 2017.

The first Europeans came to the coast of North Carolina in 1524—they were French and led by Giovanni da Verrazano.  The Spanish established a colony at Cape Fear in 1526 and the English on Roanoke Island in 1585—neither was successful.  Virginians started settling in the northeastern part of North Carolina during the 1650s, but it was not until 1663 that King Charles II officially made North Carolina an English colony.  But the colony grew slowly.  It was not until 1706 that Bath was founded as the first settlement, followed by New Bern in 1710.  By 1829, forty years after North Carolina became the 12th State and nine years after North Carolina became part of the new Diocese of Charleston, there were less than 200 Catholics in the State served by churches in New Bern, Washington, and Fayetteville.  The first church in western North Carolina was not established until 1851—St. Peter’s in Charlotte.

North Carolina has a unique Catholic history, despite having few Catholics.  Pope Pius IX created the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina in 1869, separating the state from the Diocese of Charleston.  (A vicariate apostolic is a precursor to a diocese.)  James Gibbons served as the first Vicar Apostolic from 1868 to 1877, mostly while serving as Bishop of Richmond.  (Gibbons later became the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore.)  He was succeeded by James Keane who served from 1878 to 1882, while serving as Bishop of Richmond.  Henry Northrup served from 1882 to 1887, mostly while also serving as Bishop of Charleston.  The fourth Vicar Apostolic was Leo Haid, who was also the Abbot of Belmont Abbey, near Charlotte.  He served from 1887 to 1924.  Cardinal Gibbons ordained Haid in 1888 as the first abbot-bishop in the United States.

Pope Pius X created an abbatia nullius in 1910 consisting of eight counties east of Charlotte—the only such example in U.S. history.  Haid served as bishop of the abbatia nullius, abbot of Belmont Abbey (which served as his Cathedral), and Vicar Apostolic of the rest of North Carolina until his death in 1924.  The same year Pope Pius XI raised the Vicariate Apostolic to the status of a diocese—the Diocese of Raleigh.  The new Diocese of Raleigh served only about 8,000 Catholics.  The abbatial nullius was reduced to Gaston County in 1944 and to the grounds of Belmont Abbey in 1960, before being suppressed in 1977.  Pope Paul VI created the Diocese of Charlotte in 1972 to serve Catholics in western North Carolina.