Charles Nerinckx
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Rev. Charles Nerinckx was a missionary priest in Kentucky, and the founder of the Sisters of Loretto religious order. Nerinckx was born in Herffelingen, Belgium on October 2, 1761 and died at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri on August 12, 1824.
Nerinckx was educated at the Catholic University of Leuven and upon completion of his theological training at the Theoological seminary of Mechelen was ordained a priest in 1785. He became vicar at the cathedral of Mechelen, where he was noted for his zeal among the working classes. In 1794 he obtained the pastoral charge of Everberg-Meerbeke, and when the army of the French republic invaded Belgium in 1797, an order for his arrest issued, and he went into hiding for the next four years.
Nerinckx came to the United States in 1804, Bishop John Carroll assigning him to assist Rev. Stephen Badin, the only priest in Kentucky, in 1805. The district given to his charge was over two hundred miles in length and covered nearly half the State. He set organizing new congregations and overseeing the building of churches. Word of Nerinckx’s efforts the Holy See, who sought to appoint him Bishop of New Orleans, but Nerinckx refused the honor.
With a focus on Catholic education, Nerickx founded of the Sisters of Loretto in 1812. Nerinckx also founded the first congregation of black women religious in America in 1824. They were a separate community from the Sisters of Loretto, and later disbanded. Nerinx Hall, a private secondary school for girls, was founded by the Sisters of Loretto in 1924 in Webster Groves, Missouri, in his honor.
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia, so may be out of date, or reflect the point of view of the Catholic Church as of 1913. It should be edited to reflect broader and more recent perspectives.
