Patrick Neeson Lynch

Patrick Neeson Lynch (March 10, 1817 – February 26, 1882) was an American Catholic prelate who served as the third Bishop of Charleston from 1858 until his death in 1882. During the American Civil War, he supported the Confederate States of America and served as a Confederate emissary to the Holy See.

Early life Birth and family background A native of Ireland, Patrick Lynch was born on March 10, 1817, in Clones, County Monaghan. His maternal grandfather had disapproved of his parents' marriage and disinherited his mother.

In 1819, the Lynch family immigrated to the United States. They first came to Georgetown, South Carolina, and then, upon the recommendation of state senator (and future governor) John Lyde Wilson, they made their home in the town of Cheraw on the Pee Dee River.

Conway Lynch worked as a carpenter and millwright in Cheraw, where he helped build the local Catholic church.

As a bishop, Patrick Lynch himself owned enslaved people. This was reported as early as 1861 by The New York Times, which claimed Lynch "owned some five hundred slaves." Heisser also writes:

Prior to secession [Lynch] had paid taxes on ten slaves in Charleston. In 1861, before the outbreak of war, he purchased about 85 people through Thomas Ryan from the estate of William McKenna, a wealthy Catholic layman...The bishop put the McKenna Negroes to work on plantations and at other sites around South Carolina; one of them worked for the Ursulines in Columbia.

In 1862 Lynch further acquired a woman and her two children from one of his debtors in Lancaster as surety for payment of a loan to another Irish native. On its repayment in 1864, the three slaves were returned to him. In 1863 Lynch purchased a woman named Flora in Charleston, but his motive for doing so is unknown. On two occasions during the war he also sold on troublesome slaves, but with their families, so as to keep these intact.

Education Lynch attended Cheraw Academy until 1829, when he entered St. John the Baptist Seminary in Charleston. At the time, the school taught classical and philosophical subjects to boys aged seven years and older. In 1834, he and James Andrew Corcoran were sent by Bishop John England to study for the priesthood at the Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide in Rome. There, Lynch delivered an address in Hebrew before Pope Gregory XVI and received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Upon his return to the United States, he served as an assistant at the Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar (1840–1845), pastor of St. Mary of the Annunciation Church in Charleston (1845–1847), and rector of the seminary (1847–1851) and the cathedral (1847–1857). In addition to his pastoral duties, he was named editor of the United States Catholic Miscellany in 1844 and vicar general of the Diocese of Charleston in 1850. It was not until December 11, 1857, that Pope Pius IX named Lynch the third Bishop of Charleston. During Lynch's tenure, North Carolina was separated into an apostolic vicariate in 1868 with James Gibbons as its bishop.

Civil War The American Civil War began with the Battle of Fort Sumter at Charleston in April 1861. To celebrate the fort's fall to the Confederate States Army, Lynch ordered Te Deum (a hymn of thanksgiving) to be sung in the cathedral.

In August 1861, Lynch exchanged public letters with Archbishop John Hughes of New York about the war, which helped establish each man as a Catholic spokesman for their side. He also wrote that the North lacked the military and economic capability to continue the war. He concluded:

While in Rome, at the request of Monsignor Francesco Nardi of the Roman Rota, Lynch wrote a pro-slavery pamphlet entitled, A Few Words on the Domestic Slavery in the Confederate States of America. His return home was delayed for months, first by the lack of functioning Confederate ports and then by the collapse of the Confederacy itself.

Through the efforts of Archbishop Martin John Spalding,

Lynch dedicated most of the remaining 17 years of his tenure to the restoration of his diocese. At the end of the war, the diocesan debt ranged from $200,000 While never coming to fruition, he also proposed establishing a community of Black Catholics on Folly Island. McCloskey and his suffragan bishops submitted to Rome a terna, or list of candidates, that included Lynch, Bishop Michael Corrigan of the Diocese of Newark, and Bishop John Loughlin of the Diocese of Brooklyn. However, Rome was not favorable to Lynch's age (he was then 63) or his role during the war ; Corrign was appointed instead.

Death Lynch died in Charleston on February 26, 1882, at the age of 64.