HIGH POINT — The Rev. James Kenneth Solari, 95, the oldest priest in the Diocese of Charlotte, passed away Friday, May 15, 2026, at Pennybyrn in High Point.
He was born in Richmond, Va., on July 31, 1930, the oldest child of James Kenneth Solari and Frances Meagher Solari, and was the brother of Abbot Placid Solari, O.S.B., of Belmont Abbey.
The reception of the body, vigil service and viewing will be 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 25, in the Basilica at Belmont Abbey. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 26 at Belmont Abbey with interment following in the abbey cemetery.
His parents were devout Catholics who raised their six children to know and love the faith.
After attending Benedictine High School, a military school in Richmond founded by the Benedictine monks, the young James Solari entered Belmont Abbey College.
It was there during his freshman year that he first felt called to the priesthood. It was the example of daily Mass with the Benedictine monks that attracted his attention.
He entered the Benedictine community as a novice, an intensive period of discernment to monastic life, and made his first profession of vows in 1950.
Because Belmont Abbey College was a junior college at the time, he transferred to St. Benedict’s College in Atchison, Kansas, to complete his undergraduate degree in philosophy. He then returned to Belmont Abbey, professed his final vows as a Benedictine monk and studied in the seminary there for a year.
Then, Benedictine Abbot Vincent Taylor sent him to Rome to earn a licentiate in sacred theology from the Benedictine-run Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm, also known as the Anselmianum or Sant’Anselmo. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1955 at a Benedictine Abbey in Assisi.
After graduating from Sant’Anselmo, the young priest went to the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, run by the Jesuits, to learn about Sacred Scripture for a second licentiate, from 1957 to 1959.
In 1959 Father Solari returned to Belmont Abbey, where he became part of the theology faculty and later taught in the seminary that was once there. On weekends, he celebrated Sunday Masses at various parishes in Charlotte and elsewhere and offered advice to students considering religious life.
In 1968, Father Solari went to The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., to earn a doctorate in theology. Two years later, he returned to Belmont Abbey College and served as its academic dean until 1978.
During that time, he also pursued a lifelong love of aviation, took lessons at the Gastonia airport and earned his pilot’s license. He flew frequently over the next 10 years and often to destinations where he could offer Mass. North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina was one such destination – he would fly there on the weekends to offer Mass at a local parish before flying back to Gastonia.
In 1978, his ministry took a new turn and he became a parish priest, serving the new parish of Holy Family in Clemmons, followed by St. Michael Church and School in Gastonia. He saw firsthand the great need for priests in the growing Charlotte diocese, so in 1983 he petitioned Rome for a dispensation from his monastic vows to serve as a diocesan priest.
Father Solari was incardinated into the Diocese of Charlotte in 1983. His first assignment as a diocesan priest was as pastor at St. Eugene Parish in Asheville, and he then moved to St. Leo Parish in Winston-Salem.
After his retirement from active ministry in 2000, he served as interim pastor at St. Pius X Parish in Greensboro, St. Philip Parish in Statesville and St. Michael the Archangel in Gastonia. His final assignment, beginning in 2008, was as chaplain at Pennybyrn in High Point, where he was also a resident. Read more about his ministry.
In 2005, he established the Solari Family Endowment Fund in the Diocesan Foundation to benefit Mira Via and Catherine’s House, both in Belmont.
He is survived by his sisters, Mrs. Helen Preston (Robert) and Katherine Swindell, two brothers, William Solari (Sylvia) and Abbot Placid Solari, O.S.B, and his sister-in-law, Catherine Dart Solari, and numerous nieces and nephews, grandnieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Richard Solari.
McLean Funeral Directors of Belmont is in charge of arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Solari Family Foundation with the Diocese of Charlotte, 1123 S. Church St., Charlotte, NC 28203, www.charlottediocese.org; or to The Frances and Kenneth Solari Scholarship Fund at Belmont Abbey College, 100 Belmont Mt. Holly Road, Belmont, NC 28012, www.belmontabbeycollege.edu.
— Christina Lee Knauss, Catholic News Herald