Wearing blue fezzes and a long line of women in white filed into Our Lady of Consolation Church on Oct. 15, on their way to make history.

They were celebrating the inauguration of a chapter of the Knights of Peter Claver and Ladies Auxiliary – the first in the Diocese of Charlotte.

The Catholic fraternal service order is based out of Our Lady of Consolation, an historically African American parish in Charlotte.

“It has taken a 30-year effort to get to Charlotte and make you part of the Knights of Peter Claver family,” Grant Jones, the organization’s New Orleans-based executive director, told a large crowd at an 11 a.m. Mass held in the parish’s Family Life Center.

The organization was founded in 1909 by four Josephite priests and three laymen from the Diocese of Mobile, Ala., who wanted to form a Catholic fraternal order to serve the African American community. The Church’s other fraternal orders in the United States at the time did not allow Black members. The order expanded to include the Ladies Auxiliary in 1926 and is now based in New Orleans.
Named for a 17th-century Spanish Jesuit priest who ministered to enslaved people, the organization now has more than 400 chapters in the U.S. and one in Colombia. There is currently one other North Carolina chapter in the Diocese of Raleigh.

Micaela LeBlanc, Supreme Lady of the national Ladies Auxiliary, traveled from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for the event, and more than 40 other Auxiliary members from nine states, including South Carolina, Florida, Arizona and Alabama, also attended.

“This is a truly historic event for the Ladies because this is not something we do every day,” LeBlanc said. “We’re here to expand the glory of God by spreading the Catholic presence here in Charlotte.”

The Knights of Peter Claver and Ladies Auxiliary offer a variety of social and charitable activities for members and supports a wide variety of social justice causes, including criminal justice reform and the battle to end human trafficking, domestic violence and racism.

Young people aged 7-18 can join the organization’s junior divisions, which offer faith formation, leadership development and scholarships.

Members of the order who moved to Charlotte first suggested the idea of a chapter here, Jones said. Several local residents had joined chapters in other cities because there wasn’t one here for them. The effort to bring the order to the Charlotte area picked up about 15 years ago and took off as interest grew.

Mary Adams, a member of Our Lady of Consolation Parish, was born and raised in New Orleans and joined the Christ the King Court of the Ladies Auxiliary there in 2011. She kept up her membership after moving to Charlotte and has been appointed area deputy for Ladies Auxiliary 411 in Charlotte.

“I am so proud and excited to have the Ladies Auxiliary here at last,” she said. “They are like my family at large. The unity we have and the friendships we form make this organization special.”
Adams shared the day with Sabrera Pepin of New Orleans, who serves as Grand Lady there and was the person who first asked her to join the organization. Both women also enjoy a long family history, with five generations belonging to the Knights and Ladies Auxiliary.

“Our members are like a family, and we offer something for the entire family,” Pepin said. “Husbands, wives, sons and daughters can all belong and take part in the Knights of Peter Claver activities together.”

— Christina Lee Knauss

The organization was founded in 1909 by a group including Josephite father Conrad Friedrich Rebesher, a native of Kłodawa, Poland and pastor of Most Pure Heart of Mary Parish; 3 other Josephite priests: Father Samuel Joseph Kelly, Father Joseph Peter Van Baast, and Father John Henry Dorsey; and 3 Black laymen: Gilbert Faustina, Francis Xavier “Frank” Collins, and Francis “Frank” Trenier.^[1] Their initiation ceremony was attended by their bishop, Edward patrick .

The organization’s model was based on other Catholic fraternal orders such as the Knights of Columbus, who at the time did not allow Black members in all of their councils. This reality illustrated the need for a Black Catholic fraternal order.

The Sublimed and Meritorious Fourth Degree was organized in 1917.^[2] This division is open to Knights who after two years of continual membership have proven themselves to be active workers in the Church, the community, and the Noble Order.

A program for Junior Knights existed from the Order’s earliest days. The constitution of the Junior Knights Division was adopted in 1917 and the division formally recognized in 1935.

In 1922, a Ladies Auxiliary was formed to provide the same opportunities for Catholic action to African American lay women.^[2] The Auxiliary was officially recognized as a division of the Order in 1926. The Junior Daughters division was officially recognized in 1930.