Pioneer Bishops of South Carolina

This blog will discuss bishops that served in South Carolina up to 1900.  For more information about South Carolina, see my blog of January 10, 2017.

Spanish explorers came to the coast of South Carolina in 1521 and the first Mass was celebrated the same year.  Franciscan priests established missions to the Native Americans, but by 1670 the English had founded Charleston and were firmly in control of the Colony.  Colonial law denied Catholics the right to openly practice their Faith, but by that time, there were few Catholics in South Carolina.

After the American Revolution, South Carolina became the 8th State in 1788.  Mass was first said in Charleston in 1786 by an Italian priest passing through town.  Father Thomas Keating established St. Mary’s Church in 1789 for a congregation of a few hundred. St. Mary’s is the oldest Catholic church in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.  Pope Pius VII created the Diocese of Charleston in 1820 to serve the few Catholics in those three states.  By 1869, the Diocese of Charleston only included South Carolina. 

John England was born in Ireland in 1786 and initially sought a legal career, but soon shifted his attention to the priesthood.  He was ordained a priest in 1808 in Cork and was very busy as a priest.   Among England’s activities were prison chaplain and reformer, author, librarian, journalist, and college president and theology professor.  England was also active in Irish Catholic Emancipation.  He was appointed the first Bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1820 and became an American citizen shortly after his arrival.

Bishop England came to Charleston to take over a new diocese with 5,000 Catholics served by six priests and covering three states—South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina—an area of 142,000 square miles.  He was the first U.S. bishop to write a pastoral letter and he established a seminary and the first regularly published U.S. diocesan Catholic newspaper.  England built schools for African Americans and celebrated a Mass for them every Sunday morning.  He was a noted preacher and often had to fight anti-Catholic and racial prejudice.  England traveled extensively to visit his widely dispersed flock and wrote several documents to help Catholics better understand their Faith, including a missal and catechism for children.  England believed that Catholicism and democracy were not only compatible, but that separation of Church and State were desirable for both.  He addressed Congress on this topic in 1826—the first Catholic priest to address Congress—and he was a force behind the Councils of Baltimore, the first meetings of U.S. bishops.  He wrote a constitution for the Diocese that gave power to lay people, but prevented parish trustees from interfering with spiritual matters, including the appointment of priests.  He lived austerely and ministered to the sick during cholera and yellow fever outbreaks.  England traveled to Europe in 1841 but became ill on the return voyage and never fully recovered.  He died in Charleston in 1842.

Ignatius A. Reynolds was born in Bardstown, Kentucky in 1798.  He attended St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained a priest there in 1823 but returned to Kentucky.  As a priest, he served as a college president, seminary professor, rector of the cathedral in Louisville, chaplain of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, and vicar general for the diocese.  He was appointed Bishop of Charleston in 1844.

Bishop Reynolds built new parishes and recruited priests to serve the growing number of Catholics—12,000 by 1846—mostly in South Carolina.  He also built St. Francis Infirmary and dedicated the new Cathedral of Saint John and Saint Finbar.  He also paid off the debt incurred by Bishop England and published England’s writings.  Reynolds died in 1855.

Patrick N. Lynch was born in Ireland in 1817 and as a small child came with his family to South Carolina.  Lynch was one of 14 children of a family that owned slaves.  Two of his sisters became nuns.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Charleston in 1840 and served at the cathedral as well as served as editor for the Catholic newspaper.  He later became a pastor and vicar general of the Diocese.  He was named Bishop of Charleston in 1858 after serving as administrator for three years following the death of his predecessor.

Bishop Lynch led the Diocese (which now consisted of North and South Carolina) through an 1861 fire that destroyed much of Charleston, including the Cathedral, and the Civil War that resulted in destruction throughout the Diocese.  Only one Catholic church in Charleston survived the War.  Lynch opposed certain aspects of slavery, but generally supported the institution.  As such, he supported the Confederacy, and was sent to Rome in 1864 by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to seek Pope Pius IX’s support for the Southern cause.  Lynch was unsuccessful and needed a presidential pardon to reenter the United States after the War.  He spent most of the rest of his time as bishop raising money to rebuild churches and schools in the Diocese.  He died in 1882.

Henry P. Northrup was born in Charleston in 1842.  He was educated at Georgetown College in Washington, DC, Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland, and at the Pontifical North American College in Rome prior to his ordination for the Diocese of Charleston in 1865.  Northrup served in parishes in North Carolina and South Carolina until 1881 when he was named Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina (a missionary bishop).  He was named Bishop of Charleston in 1883.

Bishop Northrop had to seek funds to rebuild many of Charleston’s churches after an 1886 earthquake.  One of the churches that he rebuilt was the current Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. He also established a church and school for African Americans, which was funded by St. Katherine Drexel.  He brought religious orders to the Diocese to serve growing numbers of Catholic immigrants and established the Knights of Columbus and Holy Name Society within the Diocese.  He also established St. Francis Xavier Hospital and Bishop England High School.  He died in 1916.