Charles Nerinckx

Charles Nerinckx (2 October 1761, Herfelingen – 12 August 1824) was a Catholic missionary priest who migrated from Belgium to work in Kentucky.

Nerinckx was educated at the University of Leuven and, upon completion of his theological training at the Major Seminary, Mechelen, was ordained a priest in 1785.

When the army of the French Republic invaded Belgium in 1797, it persecuted Catholic priests in a move to decrease the power of the Church, as it had in France.

[2] With his name listed as a fugitive from justice, returning to his parish was impossible and Nerinckx decided to emigrate to America.

After spending some months at Georgetown College, he was assigned by Bishop John Carroll to assist Stephen Badin, the only priest in Kentucky.

[1] Soon after the arrival of Bishop Flaget in Bardstown, in June, 1811, a conference of the five secular and four Dominican priests serving in Kentucky was held for the purpose of distributing diocese territory into missionary districts.

[1] Nerinx Hall, a private secondary school for girls, was founded by the Sisters of Loretto in 1924 in Webster Groves, Missouri, and named in honor of Nerinckx.