(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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Charles Nerinckx was born on October 2, 1761 in Herffelingen, Belgium. He was the eldest son of Dr. Sebastian and Petronilla (Langendries) Nerinckx, one of fourteen children. His uncle was a priest and two aunts were nuns; three of his sisters became nuns; his brother, Peter, was a Brother of Charity; and another brother, John, became a prtheiest on English missions; three of his cousins also became nuns.
Educated at the preparatory schools of Enghien and Gheel and at Louvain University, Charles followed the traditions of a religious family, when, at the seminary of Mechlin, he began preparation for the priesthood.
After his ordination (1785), Father Nerinckx was a curate at St. Rumoldus, Mechlin, where he interested himself in the welfare of the laboring class.
In 1794, he became pastor of Everberg-Meerbeke.
His uncompromising manner so aroused the hatred of Revolutionists that the French Directory ordered his arrest. He eluded the police by living in studious seclusion in Dendermonde, where he acted secretly as substitute for the chaplain of the Hospital of St. Blase, who had been sentenced to penal servitude on the Isle of Rhé. Of his writings there remain a treatise on missionaries and an exposition of the reign of Satan, both in Latin. By stealth he visited his abandoned parish, but refused a reappointment in 1801, because he could not accept the Concordat. He was considering service at the Cape of Good Hope or in England, when he learned of opportunities in America. Since his archbishop was in prison, he sought aid from Princess Gallitzin, mother of Demetrius Gallitzin, who wrote to Bishop John Carroll. In sore need of priests, the bishop welcomed Nerinckx, who arrived in Baltimore, November 14, 1804.
He set out for Kentucky and joined Father Stephen T. Badin in July 1805. Nerinckx and Badin became warm friends, but neither relished the coming of the Dominicans (1806), who took over their parish on Cartwright's Creek. Indeed, the relations between the rival missionaries were long strained and far from edifying.
Of powerful physique, he lifted logs heavy enough to tax the strength of two or three men as he built his log chapels at Rolling Fork, Lexington, Hardin's Creek (1806), on Long Lick (1812), and Casey's Creek (1812), and at stations in the wilderness. Nor did he hesitate to carry the hod when erecting a brick church at Danville (1807). He refused a titular bishopric with administrative control over Louisiana (1809), probably realizing that his conscience would render him unfitted for episcopal responsibilities.
During a number of journeys to Europe, he obtained financial aid, secured art treasures and paintings, which are now cherished by the Louisville diocese, and brought over novices for his convent, as well as a number of missionaries and Jesuit recruits.
In trouble with Reverend Guy I. Chabrat who regarded him as too rigorous and who wished to modify the rules of the Lorettines, Nerinckx left Loretto for The Barrens, Missouri, in 1824, although Bishop Flaget made no decision regarding Chabrat's complaints. Accepting his cross, he asked Bishop Rosati for an assignment to his most needy mission, but death came to him while he was visiting at Ste. Geneviève. His remains were interred at The Barrens, and later removed to the sisters' cemetery at Loretto.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
In Nerinckx's view, the Dominicans were too lax in parish rule; while the religious regarded him as tainted with Jansenist rigorism and as too fearful of republicanism. Carroll refused to take sides, and time healed their petty differences. Nerinckx won the people, even frontiersmen of no faith, who appreciated his self-discipline and courageous acceptance of danger, whether from Indians or the swollen rivers which he was accustomed to swim on his missionary tours.
