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MARCH 2G, 1938
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC L JANUARY 29, 1938
THREE—A
St» Patrick’s Was Oldest
Edifice in Raleigh Diocese
Church Now Being Replaced Was Erected 109
Ago in Days of Bishop England
Years
(Special to The Bulletin)
FAYETTEVILLE, N. C. — St. Pat
rick's Church is the oldest Catholic
Church in North Carolina. From the
standpoint of continuous use it is
probably one of the oldest religious
edifices in Fayetteville. The land upon
which the church is built was donated
for that purpose in 1829 by one John
Kelly, a native of Dublin, Ireland. At
the time of this donation, Fayetteville
was in the diocese of the great Bishop
John England, a diocese comprising
the states of North Carolina, South
Carolina and Georgia. Soon after its
completion the first church was burn
ed in a great fire which swept over the
town in 1831. In mis fire all records
and papers were destroyed. The Rev.
John Magennis, the first priest or
whom there is any record, and who
was the solitary missionary of the
state from 1829 to 1833, set to work to
rebuild the church, collections were
taken up throughout the diocese to
aid him. Catholics in Baltimore and
Philadelphia also sent aid, Charles
Carroll, of Carrollton, heading the
Maryland list.
Members of the Catholic Church
were too few in the early days of
North Carolina to permit the erection
of a church. When the celebrated
Bishop John England, who was the first
Catholic bishop in this state, wrote his
"Memoirs of the American Church” in
1824, he could find no trace of Catho
lics with churches in North Carolina
before 1798.
There are a few records of priests
having come to North Carolina from
1796 to 1820 to confer the Sacraments
or to organize the Catholics. For ex
ample, Rev. P. P. Clariviere, on a
mission tour through Virginia, North
and South Carolina, wrote to Arch
bishop Carroll in 1812: “At Fayette
ville I collected about twenty persons
at Mass on Sunday, among whom Mr.
Kelly, Mrs. Maguire and Jordan were
foremost to thank me.” But the Cath
olic Church in North Carolina dates
its organization from the year 1820,
when North Carolina was made par
of the newly created diocese of
New York Office
450 Seventh Ave.
Belk-Hensdale Company
Department Stores
“One of the 130 Belk Stores’'
FAYETTEVILLE, N. C.
Branch Banking &
Trust Company
Capital and Surplus $1,200,000.00
E. H. FOLEY. Cashier
W. A. DRAKE, Asst. Cashier
Fayetteville, N. C.
Charleston, under the Rt. Rev. John
England, D.D.
Un May 8, 1921, Bishop England be
gan his visitation of the diocese. Ke
came to Fayetteville to give the small
Catholic flock an opportunity to re
ceive the holy sacraments. Whit:
there he organized the Catholics and
urged them to meet on Sundays for
prayers and instructions. He appoint
ed a committee to read the prayers. He
recommended books to be read and
urged them to have the Catechism
taught to the ignorant.
In its early days, St. Patrick’s num
bered several wealthy members among
the parishioners, principally John Kel
ly, a wealthy slave owner, and Mrs.
William McGuire, Mrs. McGuire was
"Lady Bountiful" of the mission for
half a century and had an open door
for every homeless priest coming that
way. John Kelly, an Irish immigrant,
was well educated and for a time
taught school in the neighborhood.
Everything Mr. Kelly undertook seem
ed to prosper.
Before he reached middle age he
was one of the wealthiest men in the
Cape Fear section. He answered every
call of distress and became one of the
greatest philanthropists of his com
munity.
Mr. Kelly was a devout Catholic. It
was principally through his influence
and efforts that the Catholic Church
in Fayetteville was established. The
lumber in the present church was
sawed by him at his mill several miles
south of the city, and was hauled by
his teams to the site of the church. He
owned most of the land on which the
Catholic and Presbyterian churches
now»«tand. The land for St. Patrick's
Church v/as given to Bishop England
by Mr. Kelly, as we learn from the
deed dated March 10, 1828; the prop
erty was transferred from Bishop Eng
land to Edward Swiney, John Kelly,
Dillon Jordan, Sr., Dillon Jordan, Jr.,
Lawrence Fitzmorris and Patrick Dail
ey, trustees of St. Patrick’s Church.
The most eminent priest of the early
days of the mission was Rev. Thomas
Murphy, who was sent by Bishop
England in 1838. At that time the
parish boundry was the entire eastern
portion of the state. A handful of Irish
exiles, having found refuge in Wil
mington, naturally came under his ju
risdiction. In 1841, Bishop Reynolds,
successor of Bishop England, appoint
ed Father Murphy as rector of the
Catholic comihunity at Wilmington.
Fathers McGowan, Dunne, Ryan,
Quigley and Gross came in succession
to minister to the congregation of St.
Patrick’s Church.
During the Civil War hundreds of
Catholic soldiers worshipped in this
humble house of God, built by the
faithful sons of Erin and dedicated to
Ireland’s greatest saint.
CARDINAL GIBBONS
AT FAYETTEVILLE
Served There Before His
Consecration as Bishop
til today it has five thousand mem
bers, of whom two thousand five-hun
dred are priests. The Oblates have
missions in all parts of the world:
Northern Canada, 3outh Africa, Cey
lon, Indo-China, Australia, South
America. Besides this they have
flourishing provinces in Canada, Eng
land, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy,
France, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Bel
gium. In the United States they take
charge of parishes and preach mis
sions and retreats.
Among its illustrious members, the
congregation is proud to have His
Eminence Rodrique Cardinal Ville-
neuve, archbishop of Quebec and pri
mate of Canada.
The present unpretentious edifice
stands today as a venerable monu
ment to Catholicity after its service of
a century. “No one but the record
ing Angel can tell the amount of good
accomplished by the little woodland
church with its tapering spire, within
whose walls the eloquence of an Eng
land, a Reyffblds, a Gibbons and, a
Price once flowed in a golden tide.”
NEW YORK’S Catholic Boy Scout
Troops increased by 63 diming 1937,
the Division of Social Action of the
New York Catholic Charities an
nounces.
CHARLESTON KNIGHTS’
COMMUNION BREAKFAST
(Special to The Bulletin)
CHARLESTON, S. C. — The Rt
Rev. Msgr. James J. May, V. G., was
the principal speaker at the Com
munion Breakfast of P. N. Lynch
Council, Knights of Columbus, last
Sunday following the Communion
Mass at the Cathedral. A. M.
O’Neill was chairman of the speak
er's committee. Judge John I. Cos
grove presided, and Grand Knight
Thomas J. Burke spoke on the prog
ress of the Council and plans for the
future.
REV. GEORGE LEWIS SMITH.
of St. Joseph’s Church, addressed the
Catholic Woman’s Club at the March
meeting, his subject being “St|
Peter’s—The Heart of Christendom.”
Miss Margaret Cade, president, pre
sided, and Miss Alice F, Moran,
chairman of the entertainment com
mittee, presented Father Smith.
ELIZABETH JORDAN’S autobiog
raphy, “Three Rousing Cheers”, is
the Catholic Book of the Month
choice for March.
In the year 1867, lit. Rev. James
Gibbons, D.D., futhure Archbishop of
Baltimore, came to Fayetteville and
St. Patrick’s as a young priest. In
1868 Father Gibbons was consecrated
bishop, and established his Episcopal
See in St. Thomas’ Church in Wil
mington.
The “youngest bishop in the world”
started on his apostolic mission to
North Carolina. From Fayetteville he
traveled through the state by rail
stage and steamboat, visiting Golds
boro, Edenton, Tarboro, Wilson, Ral
eigh, Morganton, Salisbury, Old Fort
and Asheville, the latter being known
as the "western missions”. These mis
sions were more recent than the east
ern ones. There was no Catholic
Church west of St. Peter’s in Char
lotte, which was built in 1852.
Like Bishop England, Bishop Gib
bons traveled through the state preach
ing and teaching wherever he could.
Pre-eminently he was a man of the
people. Before long he knew person
ally all the adult Catholics in North
Carolina. He gained friends every
where by his rare grace of manner
and kindliness.
During his trying trips over his mis
sionary territory, he wrote whenever
and wherever he could crowd in a few
minutes. The fruit of these writings
was “The Faith of Our Fathers”. This
famous explanation of the Catholic re
ligion has been translated into twelve
languages. Little did Bishop Gibbons
think at the time that his work would
have an influence not only on his own
mission field in North Carolina, but on
the world at large.
Little did the people of Fayetteville
think that the young priest in charge
of St. Patrick’s Church would one day
become the cardinal archbishop of
Baltimore distinguished as a patriot,
author and preacher.
Father Thomas Price, one of the
founders of the Tvlaryknoll Foreign
Missionary Society, was pastor of St.
Patrick's Church . in 1896.
OBLATES IGHARGE
OF PARISH 11 YEARS
In 1927 the Oblates of Mary Immac
ulate took charge’of St. Patrick’s. This
religious congregation was founded in
1816 by Charles Eugene de Mazenod,
a young priest of Provence, France,
to counteract the terrible spiritual
desolation among the lower classes in
France following : the French revolu-
! tion. The order developed rapidly, un-
Fayetteville Coca-Cola
Bottling Company
Incorporated
Fayetteville, N. C.
Best Wishes
From
The
Fayetteville Observer
Established 1817
Fayetteville, N. C.