History of the Diocese

When Bishop England came to Charleston, James Monroe was President of the United States, Thomas Bennett was Governor of South Carolina and Elias Horrey was Mayor of the City of Charleston. The new diocese of 142,000 square miles was spread over three states, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. There were two churches, one in Charleston and one in Augusta, GA., only six priests were available to serve the handful of scattered Catholics. 

 It is believed that Masses were celebrated in the area by Spanish priests, perhaps as early as 1526, but no records exist to verify this. We are told by a genealogist that Catholics came into various sections of South Carolina before 1750, and there is an undocumented tradition that in the upstate there was a French priest who, once a year, made a trip on horseback from Canada to New Orleans in the fall and returned in the spring. He would stop along the way and say Mass in the Catholic homes.

 Bishop England wrote that “sometime about the year 1786, a vessel bound to South America put into the port of Charleston. There was a priest on board; as well as can be recollected, he was an Italian. The few Catholics, who now began in the city to be acquainted with each other .... invited him to celebrate Mass, which he did in the house of an Irish Catholic for a congregation of about twelve persons.” This might be marked as the introduction of the Catholic religion to the present Diocese of Charleston.

St. Mary Church on Hasell Street in Charleston was the first Catholic church in the Carolinas and Georgia, an area now comprising five dioceses. It was permanently established on August 24, 1789, by the Rev. Thomas Keating. It was incorporated by an act of the legislature of South Carolina in 1791, and was well established when the Diocese of Charleston was created by a Papal brief, and when Bishop England arrived in of that year.

Prior to the establishment of the Diocese of Charleston and the coming of Bishop England, the Catholic Church of the Carolinas and Georgia was part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and was under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Baltimore.

Four other dioceses have since been made from the original territory included in the Diocese of Charleston. The Diocese of Savannah was carved out in 1850. In 1956 that diocese was split into two parts with the creation of the Diocese of Atlanta which, in 1962, was elevated to the status of archdiocese and became the metropolitan see of the Province of Atlanta. North Carolina was made into a Vicariate Apostolic in 1868 and some 56 years later became the Diocese of Raleigh. In 1972 the Diocese of Raleigh was divided into two by the creation of the Diocese of Charlotte.

In 1858 the Diocese of Charleston assumed jurisdiction over the Bahama Islands, but this was relinquished in 1885.

Today the Diocese of Charleston comprises the entire state of South Carolina with Charleston as the See city, and Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone is its 13th shepherd.

Most Rev. Robert E. Guglielmone was ordained and installed as the 13th Bishop of Charleston on March 25, 2009, in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Bishop Guglielmone was born December 30, 1945, to Frank and Caroline Guglielmone. He has two brothers, Nicholas Dana and Tito.

Growing up on Long Island, he attended both Catholic grade school and high school, graduating in 1964. He earned a bachelor's degree in education from St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. For five years he taught business at Patchogue-Medford High School, during which time he did graduate work in education at New York University.

Feeling the call to the priesthood, Bishop Guglielmone entered that seminary for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y. He earned a master of divinity at Immaculate Conception Seminary in 1977 and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He served as a priest in parishes across Long Island, most recently as rector of St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre.

In addition to his parochial assignments, Bishop Guglielmone helped form the future priests of the Diocese of Rockville Centre by serving as director of pastoral formation and dean of seminarians at Immaculate Conception Seminary for seven years. He later assisted in the administration of the diocese as director of clergy personnel.

Bishop Guglielmone is a Third Degree Knight of Columbus. He was named a Knight of Grace of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George in 1993. He was named a Prelate of Honor, a monsignor, by Pope John Paul II in 1996.

Since his seminarian days, Bishop Guglielmone has been actively involved in Catholic Scouting, earning numerous awards, including the St. George Emblem and Brother Barnabas Founder's Award. He has served in various chaplain capacities locally, nationally and internationally and directed the chaplain's training for the prestigious Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico for nearly a decade. He also has served in several capacities on the National Catholic Committee on Scouting and is currently an Executive Board Member. In November 2000, Bishop Guglielmone was appointed world chaplain to Catholic Scouting by the Vatican for a four year term and was re-appointed in 2004.