Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin

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Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (1770-1840)
Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (1770-1840)

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (1770-1840), was a Roman Catholic priest, called The Apostle of the Alleghenies, born at The Hague on December 22, 1770.

His name is a form of Galitzine, the Russian princely family from which he came. His father, Dimitri Alexeievich Galitzine (1735-1803), Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, was an intimate friend of Voltaire and a follower of Diderot; so, too, for many years was his mother, Countess Adelheid Amalie Gallitzin (1748-1806), until a severe illness in 1786 led her back to the Roman Catholic Church, in which she had been reared.

At the age of 17, Demetrius was received into the Roman Catholic Church. His father had planned a diplomatic or military career for him, and in 1792 he was aide-de-camp to the commander of the Austrian troops in Brabant; but, after the assassination of the king of Sweden, he, like all other foreigners, was dismissed from the service.

He then set out to complete his education by travel, and on October 28, 1792, arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, where he finally decided to enter the priesthood. He was ordained in March 1795, one of the first Roman Catholic priests ordained in America. Gallitzin then was sent to work in a church mission at Port Tobacco, Maryland, whence he was soon transferred to the Conewago district. There, Gallitzen's impulsive objection to some of Bishop John Carroll's instructions was sharply rebuked, and he was recalled to Baltimore. But in 1796 he removed to Taneytown, Maryland, and in both Maryland and Pennsylvania worked with such misdirected zeal and autocratic manners that he was again reproved by his bishop in 1798.

In the Allegheny Mountains, in 1799, Gallitzin founded the settlement of Loretto, Pennsylvania in what is now Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Loretto in turn was an expansion upon a small clearing, "the McGuire Settlement", established by Captain Michael McGuire in 1788. McGuire, who died in 1793, bequeathed this clearing and its accompanying 1200 acres (5 km²) in trust to Bishop Carroll for the eventual establishment of a full Catholic community with resident clergy. With Gallitzin in the lead, Loretto became the first English-speaking Roman Catholic settlement in the United States west of the Allegheny Front. (In addition to McGuire's patrimony, Gallitzin is believed to have spent $150,000 (USD) of his own funds later, to purchase some additional 20,000 acres (81 km²), which it is said he gave or sold at low prices to newly arriving Catholic settlers.) Gallitzin dedicated Loretto's parish church to the honor of St. Michael the Archangel, both as a nod to Gallitzin's Russian roots and, indirectly, to Michael McGuire. The church today is known as the Basilca of St. Michael the Archangel. [1].

In 1802, Gallitzin became a naturalized citizen of the United States under the name Augustine Smith. After his father's death, he was disinherited by czar Alexander I of Russia in 1808 due to Gallitzin's Roman Catholicism and ecclesiastical profession. Subsequently his sister, Anne zu Salm-Krautheim, repeatedly promised him his half of the valuable estate and sent him money from time to time. Nonetheless, after her death, Gallitzin received little or nothing more.

Gallitzin felt free to discard the name Augustine Smith in 1809. Gallitzin also soon found himself deeply in debt. He obtained a loan from Charles Carroll. Later, when Gallitzin was suggested for the see of Philadelphia in 1814, Bishop Carroll objected. Bishop Carroll agreed Gallitzin's debt load was contracted for excellent and charitable purposes. Nonetheless it was not clear Gallitzin had the financial acumen to run a diocese as important as Philadelphia, Carroll believed. In 1815, Gallitzin was suggested for the bishopric of Bardstown, Kentucky, and in 1827 for the proposed see of Pittsburgh. Later, Gallitzin is said to have refused the bishopric of Cincinnati.

Gallitzin died at Loretto on May 6, 1840 and was buried near St. Michael's church in Loretto. His parishioners saw Gallitzin as a great power for good. Gallitzin's part in building up the Roman Catholic Church in western Pennsylvania cannot be estimated; it is said that at his death there were 10,000 Roman Catholics in the district where forty years before he had found a scant dozen. Loretto today is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

In 1899-1901, the steel industrialist Charles M. Schwab funded the construction of a large stone church, which is the current basilica, at Prince Gallitzin's tomb. Schwab also provided funds for a bronze statue of Gallitzin.

The nearby town of Gallitzin, Pennsylvania is named for western Pennsylvania's first English-speaking priest. In the mid-1960s, Pennsylvania christened a new nearby state park in honor of Prince Gallitzin, as he is fondly called locally.

Among Gallitzin's controversial pamphlets are: A Defence of Catholic Principles (1816), Letter to a Protestant Friend on the Holy Scriptures (1820), Appeal to the Protestant Public (1834), and Six Letters of Advice (1834), a reply to what Gallitzin saw as attacks on the Roman Catholic Church by a Presbyterian synod.

On June 6, 2005, it was announced that Gallitzin had been named a Servant of God by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the first step on the path toward possible future sainthood.

[edit] Publications

  • Brownson, Life of D. A. Gallitzin, Prince and Priest, (New York, 1873)
  • Kittell, Souvenir of Loretto Centenary, (Cresson, Pa., 1899)

[edit] External links

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