1844 – A letter from the newly consecrated Cathoiic Bishop of Charleston to his superiors in France requesting funds to help pay off the massive debt left by his predecessor

Item Details

Charleston, South Carolina, 1844, Unbound

Very good

This stampless, folded letter, measuring 16” x 9.75” unfolded, was sent by Ignatius A. Reynolds from Charleston, South Carolina to the President of the Association for the Propagation of the Faith in Lyons, France.  It is dated April 3, 1844, just two weeks after he was consecrated as the Bishop of Charleston. The cover bears a “25” rate handstamp, along with other transit markings and a Lyons receiving postmark. The letter was carried to France on the Cunard Line’s Acadia from Boston to Paris via London. In nice shape.

In this letter, Bishop Reynolds relates his recent consecration as the Bishop of Charleston, reports the diocese’s crushing debt, explains the actions already taken to right the financial ship, and request a donation to help complete the task. It reads in part:

“I ought to have written to you first, as Lyons is the Mother of the Association. I am a native of Kentucky and have spent 20 years in the holy ministry. . .. I was consecrated Bishop of Charleston on the 18^th of March, and have this day reached my episcopal see, after a fatiguing travel of 12 hundred miles. [My predecessor,] Bishop England left a debt of thirty thousand dollars (about 160,000 francs!)  To meet this debt a very valuable House and lot have already been sold, for little more than half what they cost: the appropriation made by your association for the year 1842 [has] aided towards extinguishing the debts; yet not less than 12 thousand dollars are still due, and I know not how we can meet those debts, save by the means, which your worthy and most meritorious association may furnish. I therefore entreat you and the Council kindly to consider the wants of this . . . vast Diocese, which embraces an extent of country equal to the whole of France and has Catholic sections over every portion of it . . . many who are descendants of French families; some have lost their faith, others are merely nominal members of the Church, and some are fervent Christians. . .. We then entreat you to do what you can for us, and can assure your donations will be well applied. . .. I also need several clergy men more [and] endeavor to get some French Priests, for many of the French here do not speak English, especially the females. . ..”

Reynolds’s diocese included the states of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Of the 12 million residents, only 12,000 were Catholic at the time. Before he died in 1855, the number of Catholics in his diocese had increased to around 19,000, and he had eliminated all of the debt he inherited from Bishop England.

[For more information, see McNamara’s “Ignatius A. Reynolds, Charleston, South Carolina (1798-1855)” at the Bishop of the Week Blog.)

An especially scarce testament to the growth of the Catholic Church in the South. At the time of listing, no other letters by, to, or about Re“I ought to have written to you first, as Lyons is the Mother of the Association. I am a native of Kentucky and have spent 20 years in the holy ministry. . .. I was consecrated Bishop of Charleston on the 18^th of March, and have this day reached my episcopal see, after a fatiguing travel of 12 hundred miles. [My predecessor,] Bishop England left a debt of thirty thousand dollars (about 160,000 francs!)  To meet this debt a very valuable House and lot have already been sold, for little more than half what they cost: the appropriation made by your association for the year 1842 [has] aided towards extinguishing the debts; yet not less than 12 thousand dollars are still due, and I know not how we can meet those debts, save by the means, which your worthy and most meritorious association may furnish. I therefore entreat you and the Council kindly to consider the wants of this . . . vast Diocese, which embraces an extent of country equal to the whole of France and has Catholic sections over every portion of it . . . many who are descendants of French families; some have lost their faith, others are merely nominal members of the Church, and some are fervent Christians. . .. We then entreat you to do what you can for us, and can assure your donations will be well applied. . .. I also need several clergy men more [and] endeavor to get some French Priests, for many of the French here do not speak English, especially the females. . ..”

Reynolds’s diocese included the states of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Of the 12 million residents only 12,000 were Catholic at the time. Before his death in 1855, the number of Catholics in his diocese had increased to around 19,000, and he had completely eliminated the debt he inherited from Bishop England.

[For more information, see McNamara’s “Ignatius A. Reynolds, Charleston, South Carolina (1798-1855)” at the Bishop of the Week Blog.)

An especially scarce testament to the growth of the Catholic Church in the South. At the time of listing, no other letters by, to, or about Reynolds are for sale in the trade. The Rare Book Hub identifies none as having ever appeared at auction. OCLC lists only one institution, the University of Notre Dame, as having any in its collection, however others are held by the Diocese of Charleston.

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