Pioneer Bishops of West Virginia

This blog will discuss bishops that served in West Virginia up to 1900.  For more information about West Virginia, see my blog of February 11, 2017.

The first Mass in what is now West Virginia was likely said by Father Joseph de Bonnecamps, who accompanied the French explorer Celeron de Blainville to the area near present day Wheeling and Point Pleasant in 1749.  By 1830, the northwestern counties of Virginia had a population of about 177,000, and Catholic churches had been established in Wheeling, Martinsburg, Shepherdstown, and Harpers Ferry.  Pope Pius IX split the State of Virginia into two dioceses in 1850—the Diocese of Richmond that had been created in 1820 and the newly established Diocese of Wheeling.  The northwestern counties did not agree with Virginia’s decision to secede from the United States and in 1863 formed the new state of West Virginia, with Wheeling as the capital—Charleston became the capital in 1885.

Diocesan boundaries in 1863 did not correspond to state boundaries.  Some of the southwestern counties of Virginia were part of the Diocese of Wheeling and some counties of West Virginia—notably the Eastern Panhandle—were part of the Diocese of Richmond.  This did not change until 1974, when the name of the Wheeling diocese was changed to the Diocese of Wheeling and Charleston, the boundaries of the Diocese became the same as the State of West Virginia, and Sacred Heart Church in Charleston was designated Co-Cathedral for the Diocese.

Richard V. Whelan was born in Baltimore in 1809 and entered Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, at age 10.  He graduated in 1826 and went to Paris to attend seminary.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Richmond in 1831.  He served as a faculty member and business manager at Mount St. Mary’s and also served as pastor in several western Virginia parishes.  Whelan, at the age of 32, was appointed the second Bishop of Richmond in 1841.  He moved to Wheeling in 1846 to minister to Irish and Italian railroad workers and to escape from strong anti-Catholic sentiment in Richmond.  He requested that his Diocese be divided and in 1850 the Diocese of Wheeling (then Virginia, now West Virginia) was created with Whelan as its first Bishop.

Bishop Whelan’s new Diocese of Wheeling had 5,000 Catholics in four churches served by six priests.  He established the first Catholic cemeteries (including Mount Calvary) and Wheeling Hospital and oversaw the construction of several new churches, including St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Wheeling and St. John the Evangelist Chapel in Sweet Springs, the oldest standing church in the Diocese (1859).  (Whelan often helped in the construction of these churches.)  West Virginia became a State in 1863, although some West Virginia counties remained in the Diocese of Richmond and some Virginia counties were part of the Diocese of Wheeling.  Whelan oversaw an increase in the Diocese in the number of Catholics (5,000 to 18,000), churches (4 to 45), and priests (6 to 29).  Whelan sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War and was subject to arrest.  President Lincoln informed Union officials that they were not to arrest Bishop Whelan unless directly ordered by the President—no such order was ever given.  Whelan attended the First Vatican Council in 1869-70, but opposed the declaration of papal infallibility because he thought it would be untimely.  Bishop Whelan died in 1874. 

John J. Kain was born in what is now Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1841.  He was educated in Maryland and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1866.  He was assigned to Harper’s Ferry where his parish consisted of eight counties in West Virginia and four in Virginia.  He restored several churches destroyed during the Civil War.  One of his sisters was a religious sister in Wheeling and another served as his housekeeper.  Kain was appointed Bishop of Wheeling in 1875.

Bishop Kain was only 34 and was the youngest U.S. bishop at the time of his appointment.  His diocese had 20,000 Catholics served by 36 priests.  Kain built a chapel in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, in which are entombed four Bishops of Wheeling.  Kain sought to address the Diocese’s debt resulting from its rapid expansion.  He also started a fund to care for elderly priests and opened two orphanages.  He was appointed coadjutor Archbishop of St. Louis in 1893 and became Archbishop of St. Louis two years later.  Kain died in 1903 in Baltimore after a long illness.

Patrick J. Donahue was born in England in 1849.  After attending college in England, he came to Washington, D.C., in 1873 and attended law school.  He was admitted to the bar in 1876 and practiced as a lawyer until 1883.  He entered the seminary in Baltimore and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1885.  He served as chancellor of the Archdiocese and as cathedral rector and was appointed Bishop of Wheeling in 1894.

During Donahue’s time as Bishop, the number of Catholics grew from 20,000 to 62,000 and he established 150 new parishes and missions, as well as hospitals in Parkersburg, Charleston, Richwood, and Buckhannon, and established the diocese’s first monthly newspaper in 1895.  He also brought in religious orders of priests, brothers, and nuns, to serve the Catholic immigrants coming to West Virginia coal mines and other industries.  Donahue was also instrumental in establishing Wheeling Jesuit University.  He died in 1922 of heart disease.