The reluctant 'Bishop of the West'

Catholics were scarce when the American colonies won their independence from England. In 1790, when Fr. John Carroll was consecrated the first bishop of Baltimore, the first U.S. diocese, some 6,000 Catholics roamed the new nation. By his death in 1815, the Catholic population across the burgeoning American landscape approached 10,000, many of these on the frontier. 

In 1808, Pope Pius VII, on Bishop Carroll’s recommendation, made Baltimore an archdiocese and created from its vast territory four new U.S. dioceses — New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Bardstown, KY. To lead the frontier diocese of Bardstown, Pius named Fr. Benedict Joseph Flaget, a French Sulpician who was serving under Bishop Carroll, as its first bishop.

Although Fr. Flaget tried initially to wriggle out of the appointment, he would go on to serve faithfully for 40 years during a critical period in the nation’s westward expansion — and with it the Catholic Church in America.

A PIONEER DIOCESE

Catholics were present in Kentucky as early as 1775, but with no clergy to serve them. By the time Irish Franciscan missionary Fr. Maurice Whelan arrived two years later and built their first church, 50 Catholic families were scattered about the region. Other mission priests came and went, and more Catholics began settling in Kentucky.

Father Stephen Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States, was sent to Kentucky in 1795; Fr. Charles Nerinckx and a few Dominicans soon followed. In time, other religious communities arrived, earning the region the nickname “Kentucky’s Holy Land.”

Although officially comprising only the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, Bardstown immediately became the largest U.S. diocese in jurisdiction, with pastoral responsibility for part or all of the present-day states of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arkansas. It was pioneer territory, the first diocese on the western side of the Allegheny Mountains. 

HUMBLE RESISTANCE

Father Flaget was among French clergy who fled the French Revolution, and upon his arrival in 1792 Bishop Carroll assigned him to the French settlements near Vincennes, IN. Three years later, he returned to Baltimore, taught at Georgetown College, then was sent to Havana, Cuba. Father Badin had urged Bishop Carroll to recommend Fr. Flaget as Bardstown’s first bishop due to his experience in Vincennes. Bishop Carroll again had the Pope’s ear, and Fr. Flaget got the nod.

Father Flaget, however, would have none of it. A humble man, he believed he was not theologically astute enough for the episcopacy, and for months he dragged his feet seeking a way out. He had his fellow Sulpicians pray a novena for a reprieve, and upon its conclusion his brothers agreed he should reject the appointment. He sailed to France to appeal his case to his Sulpician superior. “My Lord, you should have been already in your diocese!” his superior exclaimed upon seeing him. With that, Fr. Flaget gave in. He was consecrated bishop in November 1810 and made the journey to Bardstown the next spring.

He arrived to find his diocese had just three secular priests and four Dominican missionaries, but he embraced the challenge before him. “In entering the town, I devoted myself to all the guardian angels who reside therein, and I prayed to God, with all my heart, to make me die a thousand times, should I not become an instrument of His glory in this new diocese,” he wrote in his memoirs.

A pioneer family gave the bishop their 370-acre homestead, and he promptly consecrated the log home as St. Thomas Church and built a log seminary on the land that soon was producing priests. Several religious congregations set up shop in the region, among them the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, the Sisters of Loretto, and years later the Cistercians, who would found the Abbey of Gethsemani nearby.

RESPECTED PRELATE

Bishop Flaget oversaw the Bardstown diocese for the next four decades, providing clergy and establishing parishes throughout the frontier. He was a tireless missionary even to its farthest reaches, evangelizing settlers as well as Native American tribes and winning the respect of Protestants who had been biased against Catholics. He founded four colleges, an orphanage, and 11 academies for girls. His reputation for holiness and simplicity won him great admiration among his fellow bishops, as seen in his influence at the first Council of Baltimore in 1829 and in the appointment of many U.S. bishops.

He was so successful in growing the Catholic presence on the frontier that within a decade after his arrival his jurisdiction begin shrinking as new dioceses were carved from it — starting in 1821 with Cincinnati, which took away Ohio, Michigan, and part of Wisconsin territory.

Due to health and overwork, Bishop Flaget resigned in 1832 and let his coadjutor bishop take over. Rather than rest, however, he spent his time in the diocese caring for victims of a cholera outbreak. The outcry from the people who wanted him back at the helm was so great that the Pope reappointed him to Bardstown a few months later. 

Vincennes became a diocese in 1834, extracting Indiana and part of Illinois from Bardstown; Nashville, claiming all of Tennessee, followed in 1837. With that, Bardstown was diminished to the Kentucky border. Today, 44 dioceses occupy the territory that was once under Bardstown’s care.

Bishop Flaget was the “reluctant bishop,” but only out of humility. Biographical sketches from those who knew him affirm that the “constant rule” of his life was to seek God’s will. 

“Whether our undertaking be successful or not,” he is quoted as saying, “our consolation is to know that we are doing the will of God.”