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  • Patrick N. Lynch, 1817–1882: Third Catholic Bishop of Charleston by David C. R. Heisser, and Stephen J. White Sr
  • James M. Woods
Patrick N. Lynch, 1817–1882: Third Catholic Bishop of Charleston. By David C. R. Heisser and Stephen J. White Sr. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. 2015. Pp. viii, 271. $39.95. ISBN 978-1-61117-404-5 clothbound; 978-1-61117-405-2 e-book.)

This biography of Charleston’s third Catholic prelate, Patrick Neison Lynch, has been long in the making. David Heisser, a native Charlestonian, initiated the research, dying in 2010. Stephen J. White of the Charleston Historical Society has completed this book. Like Bishop John England, who led the Charleston Diocese from 1820 to 1842, Lynch proved to be a gifted thinker and orator who brought talent to his missionary diocese. In England’s era the diocese encompassed both Carolinas and Georgia. By Lynch’s episcopacy, the Diocese of Charleston contained both Carolinas, yet North Carolina was severed from the diocese in 1868.

Born in Ireland on May 17, 1817, Lynch was an infant when his family sailed to America. In 1819 his family settled in Cheraw, South Carolina. His parents had a dozen children, with two daughters and one son (Lynch) entering religious life. Lynch enrolled in Bishop England’s seminary in 1829, and the bishop dispatched the boy to Rome in 1834. Lynch studied with various seminarians; most were from English-speaking countries. He learned to speak or read seven languages (pp. 21–22). On April 2, 1840, Lynch was ordained a priest and given a doctorate in theology. After visiting family in Ireland, he arrived in Charleston by fall 1840.

Lynch soon became, like Bishop England, a part of the literati in Charleston. In addition to his writings, Lynch gained “a national reputation for his work on wells and for his contributions to geological science” (p. 37). This talented cleric worked in various capacities, including editing the Catholic newspaper, directing the seminary, and serving as vicar general. After the see became vacant in 1855, Lynch was consecrated as Charleston’s third bishop on March 14, 1858.

Although Lynch did not espouse his views on slavery until late in the Civil War, he was a slaveholder of some note, acquiring his first bondsmen in 1857. In early 1861, a wealthy Catholic left Lynch substantial property and more than a hundred slaves in the South Carolina interior—an area with properties managed by prominent Catholics. The Church permitted ownership of slaves, as long as they were baptized, were given religious instruction, were not abused, and were not separated [End Page 425] from their families. Regarding the legacy left to Lynch, the authors state that Lynch “tried to be true to his publicly expressed principles” (p. 71). In 1861 he sparred with Archbishop John Hughes of New York over the war, attacking the North’s antislavery fanaticism and refusal to allow the South to depart peacefully.

Such loyalty prompted Confederate President Jefferson Davis to dispatch Lynch on a desperate mission to secure papal recognition. Pius IX received Lynch on July 4, 1864, but only as a bishop, not as a Confederate representative. Lynch correctly surmised that slavery hurt the Confederacy’s cause. His treatise defending the peculiar institution was published in late 1864. This work, however, did not alter the Confederacy’s status with the Vatican. Since Lynch had traveled as a diplomat, he had to obtain a pardon from President Andrew Johnson. With that in hand, he returned to Charleston by December 1, 1865, spending the rest of his episcopacy raising funds for his devastated diocese. These efforts exhausted the Irish cleric, and he died on February 26, 1882.

This is a well written, deeply researched biography of a Southern Catholic prelate. The authors have outlined his career and explained his positions. One caveat is that little coverage is provided of Lynch’s activity at the First Vatican Council. He joined other American prelates who spoke against Pius IX’s schema to unite church and state. If Lynch supported the dogma on papal infallibility, why did he leave in April, three months before the final vote? This is nonetheless a...

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