Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (, December 22, 1770 – May 6, 1840) was an emigre Russian aristocrat and Catholic priest known as "The Apostle of the Alleghenies" and also in the United States as Prince Gallitzin. He was a member of the House of Golitsyn.

Since 2005, he has been under consideration for beatification by the Catholic Church; he was thus titled a Servant of God.

Early life

Gallitzin was born into nobility on December 22, 1770 at The Hague. His father, Prince Dimitri Alexeievich, the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, was an intimate friend of Voltaire and a follower of Diderot. His mother was the Prussian Countess Adelheid Amalie von Schmettau, the daughter of Field Marshall Samuel von Schmettau.

When Prince Demitri was about two years old, the Empress Catherine the Great visited The Hague, and as a sign of special favor to his father, cradled the child in her arms and appointed the boy an officer of the guard. Each summer, his mother would take Dimitri and his sister traveling to the principal cities of Germany, explaining to them important geographical or historical features. Demetri was, by nature, rather reserved and timid. His sister made friends more readily, but Dimitri kept them longer. but, after the death of Leopold II of Austria and the murder of King Gustav III of Sweden, Prince Dimitri, like all other foreigners, was dismissed from Austrian Service.

America

As was the custom among young aristocrats at the time, he then set out to complete his education by travel. As the French Revolution had made European tours unsafe, his parents resolved that he should spend two years traveling through America, the West Indies, and other foreign lands. His mother provided him with letters of introduction from the prince-bishops of Hildesheim and Paderborn to Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore. With his tutor, Father Brosius, afterward a prominent missionary in the United States, he embarked from Rotterdam on August 18, 1792, and landed in Baltimore, October 28. To avoid the inconvenience and expense of traveling as a Russian prince, he assumed the name of Augustine Schmettau. This name then became Schmet or Smith, and he was known as Augustine Smith for many years after. To the shock and horror of his father, Prince Dimitri decided to join the priesthood and offered to forgo his inheritance. The Ambassador subsequently persuaded Catherine the Great to award his son a commission in one of the Palace Guards Regiments and formally summoned him to active duty in St. Petersburg.

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin entered the newly established Seminary of St. Sulpice in Baltimore on November 5, 1792. Father Gallitzin was ordained on March 18, 1795, by Archbishop Carroll. Gallitzin was the first to make all his theological studies in the United States. Gallitzin then was sent to work in a church mission at Port Tobacco, Maryland, whence he was soon transferred to the Conewago district where he served at Conewago Chapel until 1799.

His missionary territory extended from Taneytown, Maryland to Martinsburg, then in Virginia, and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In 1794, Gallitzin traveled to Middleway, West Virginia, near Martinsburg to accompany Father Dennis Cahill in the investigation of a haunted-house phenomenon known locally as the Wizard Clip. Gallitzin wrote of this experience much later, around 1839.

Missionary

thumb|left|230px|Stained-glass depiction of Father Demetrius Gallitzin and Father Peter Helbron, St. Patrick Church, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania

In the Allegheny Mountains, in 1799, Gallitzin founded the settlement of Loretto, Pennsylvania in what is now Cambria County, Pennsylvania. In turn, Loretto was an expansion upon a small clearing, "the McGuire Settlement," established by Captain Michael McGuire in 1788. McGuire, who died in 1793, bequeathed in trust to Bishop Carroll to launch a full Catholic community with resident clergy. Gallitzin's military training had taught him engineering fundamentals, and in 1816 he marked out Loretto on the southern slope of a pleasant hillside.

With Gallitzin in the lead, Loretto became the first English-speaking Catholic settlement in the United States west of the Allegheny Front. 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. For several years St. Michael's Church was the only Catholic Church between Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and St. Louis, Missouri. The church today is known as the Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel.

In 1802, Gallitzin became a naturalized citizen of the United States under the name Augustine Smith. Seven years after he was naturalized and became a citizen of the United States, an Act passed by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania authorized him to establish his name, Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, and to enjoy all of the benefits accruing to him under the name Augustine Smith. Gallitzin is believed to have spent $150,000 (USD) of his funds to purchase some additional which he gave or sold at low prices to newly arriving Catholic settlers. Traveling from one valley to the next, he was often away for over a week, sleeping on bare floors. For most of his time in the mountains, he worked alone and was relatively isolated. In September 1807, he wrote to Bishop Carroll:

<blockquote>...I am hardly recovered from a severe spell of sickness which attacked me in Greensburgh and which has left me so weak I can scarcely crawl about... My constitution being weak, and my heart perhaps too susceptible of deep impressions from disappointments, losses, &c., I have been wonderfully low this great while, ...I can better feel than describe the gloomy and melancholy state of my mind, especially since the death of my mother. ...my own solitary situation in the wilderness of the Allegheny, my sufferings and persecutions here, conspire to overwhelm me with sorrow and melancholy. ...for God's sake, send me a companion, a priest, to help and assist me, -a friend to help me bear the burden.

Quotes

<blockquote>Whatever differences on points of doctrine may exist amongst the different denominations of Christians, all should be united in the bonds of charity, all should pray for one another, all should be willing to assist one another; and, where we are compelled to disapprove of our neighbor's doctrine, let our disapprobation fall upon his doctrine only, not upon his person.</blockquote>

Death

thumb|230px|Demitrius Gallitzin marker

For 41 years, Gallitzin traveled the Allegheny Mountains, often in challenging conditions, preaching, teaching, serving, praying, and offering the sacraments. A doctor had recommended bed rest and warmth for the exhausted priest, but he was reluctant to curtail any Lenten or Holy Week services. Father Gallitzin ministered faithfully until the very end of his life, and after a brief illness, died at Loretto on May 6, 1840, shortly after Easter. Loretto today is in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

In 1899-1901, the steel industrialist Charles M. Schwab funded the construction of a large stone church, the current basilica, at Prince Gallitzin's tomb. Schwab also provided funds for a bronze statue of Gallitzin. is named for western Pennsylvania's first English-speaking Catholic priest. In this town, the Pennsylvania Railroad would tunnel through the summit of the Allegheny Mountains. Eventually, the railroad would operate three tunnels through the ridge into Gallitzin. The Gallitzin Tunnel was closed as part of Conrail's massive double-stack clearance project in the 1990s. In the mid-1960s, Pennsylvania christened a new nearby state park in honor of Prince Gallitzin, as he is called locally.

In 1916 Pennsylvania established the Gallitzin Forest District - which is a separate entity and location from Gallitzin State Park and is now known as Gallitzin State Forest.

In 1990, Bishop Joseph V. Adamec, Bishop-Emeritus of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, established the Prince Gallitzin Cross Award, which is given annually to Catholics in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown who exemplify the evangelizing spirit of the Prince-Priest, Demetrius Gallitzin.

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 a possible future sainthood.

See also

  • Yelizaveta Golitsyna, first cousin

Notes

References

  • Brownson, Sarah. Life of Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, Prince and Priest, Fr Pustet & Co., New York, 1873
  • Kittell, Souvenir of Loretto Centenary, (Cresson, Pa., 1899)
  • <!-- quote=prince demetrius augustine gallitzin. --> Heyden, Thomas. A Memoir on the Life and Character of the Rev. Prince Demetrius A. de Gallitzin: Founder of Loretto and Catholicity, in Cambria County, Pa., Apostle of the Alleghanies, J. Murphy & Company, Baltimore, 1869
  • Official Site for the Beatification of the Servant of God Demetrius Gallitzin
  • Obituary of Father Demetrius Gallitzin, Mountaineer, May 14, 1840, reprinted in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria County, 1896, transcribed to rootsweb.com website.
  • "Prince-turned-priest on path toward sainthood" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 7, 2005.
  • "One of the first priests ordained in the USA on road to sainthood" Catholic News Agency, June 10, 2005.