Charles Randolph Uncles, SSJ (November 8, 1859 — July 20, 1933) was an African-American Catholic

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

. In 1891, he became the first such priest ordained on US soil. Two years later, he co-founded the

Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart The Society of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart ( la, Societas Sodalium Sancti Joseph a Sacra Corde) abbreviated SSJ, also known as the Josephites is a society of apostolic Life of Pontifical Right for men (priests and brothers) headquartered i ...

(a.k.a. the Josephites), formed to minister to the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

community.Josephite Fathers Website
As such, he was the first and only African-American to establish a

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

of priests.

Biography

The son of Lorenzo and Anna Marie (Buchanan) Uncles, Charles was raised in East

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The Mill Hill Missionary Society (whose American branch would later become the Josephites) recruited a number of candidates to become priests for their North American mission. In the end, Uncles was the only one. He studied at St. Peter's Apostolic School in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, England for the task. On returning to the U.S., he studied at St. Joseph Seminary in Baltimore. He also took classes at

St. Mary's Seminary St. Mary's Seminary and University is a Catholic seminary located within the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland; it was the first seminary founded in the United States after the Revolution and has been run since its founding by the ...

in Baltimore, which had previously refused to accept him due to his being Black. He was ordained to the priesthood in December 1891 at the Cathedral of the Assumption by Cardinal

James Gibbons James Cardinal Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) was a senior-ranking American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina from 1868 to 1872, Bishop of Richmond from 1872 to 1877, and as ninth ...

, becoming the first Black priest ordained in the United States. He celebrated his first Mass on

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

Day. In 1893, the US provincial for the Mill Hill Fathers, Fr

John R. Slattery John Richard Slattery (July 16, 1851 – March 6, 1926) was an American former Catholic priest, activist, missionary, writer, and lawyer. He was first a member of the Mill Hill Missionaries, later becoming in 1893 a co-founder and the first superio ...

, requested that the society's American operations be broken off into its own society, to which the Superior General acquiesced. The Josephites were then formed with the Mill Hill priests who wished to remain, including Uncles. From 1891 to 1925, Uncles taught mainly at

Epiphany Apostolic College Epiphany Apostolic College, formerly known as the Josephite Collegiate Seminary, was a Catholic Church, Catholic minor seminary founded in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland in 1889 by John R. Slattery for the Mill Hill Missionaries, a United Kingdom, ...

in Baltimore and

New Windsor, New York New Windsor is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. History The region was originally inhabited by the Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"L ...

. While residing at Epiphany College, Uncles fell ill and died July 20, 1933, considering himself to be an outcast from the Society due to the

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

he experienced therein. He was buried in the college's cemetery, but was exhumed in the 1970s and reburied at Calvary Cemetery in the Josephite Plot.Agnes Kane, "Meeting the Pioneers of Black Catholicism"
, National Black Catholic Congress

References

External links

Agnes Kane, "Meeting the Pioneers of Black Catholicism"
National Black Catholic Congress (2008 archived copy) {{DEFAULTSORT:Uncles, Charles 1933 deaths American Roman Catholic priests Religious leaders from Baltimore African-American Roman Catholic priests Founders of Catholic religious communities Josephite Fathers 1859 births 20th-century African-American people St. Joseph's Seminary (Washington, DC) African-American Catholic consecrated religious