6ALLITZIN
36"J
GALLITZIN
lishment of any kind, when he opened his missionary
career. From this statement we may conceive some
idea of the incredible privations and toils which he had
to encounter in visiting the various widely remote
points where some few Catholics happened to reside."
As early as 1800, and frequently thereafter, he wrote
to Bishop Carroll, begging that one or more priests be
sent to share his burdens. And so for more than
twenty years he was obliged to perform, unassisted, a
work which would have proved onerous for several.
He was not only the good shepherd of his multi- plying flock; he was also in a particular manner their worldly benefactor. Following out his idea of establishing a Catholic colony at the place which he named Loretto, and which he made the cradle of Catholicity in Western Pennsylvania, he, by means of remittances from Germany and loans contracted on the strength of his expectations, purchased large por- tions of lantl adjoining the settlement, which he sold in small tracts to the incoming colonists at a very low rate and on easy terms. For much of this land he was never repaid. Moreover, he built, at his own ex- pense, saw-mills, grist-mills, and tanneries, and estab- lished other industries for the material benefit of his flock. In accomplishing all this he necessarily bur- dened himself with a heavy personal debt; not im- prudently, however, for he had received solemn assur- ances that he would obtain a portion of his father's large estate, as well as his share of his mother's be- quest. The Russian Government, nevertheless, disin- herited him for becoming a Catholic and a priest, and the German prince who had married his sister squan- dered both his and her inheritance. In these circum- stances, he was compelled, in 1827, to appeal to the charitable public ; the appeal was endorsed by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who headed the list with a sub- scription of one hunilrcil dolhirs; on the list stands the name of Cardinal Cappollari, afterwards Pope Gregory XVI, who subscribed two huiulrcd dollars. Yet it was not until near the close of his life that the burden of del)t was finally lifted. During the forty-one years of his pastorate in the .\lleghenies, he never received a cent of salary; he maintained himself, his household, and the many orphans whom he sheltered, and abun- dantly supplied the wants of the needy among his flock out (if the prciiluce of his farm, which by his intelligent method of cultivation became very productive. It is estimated that he expended $150,000 of his inherit- ance, a small portion of the amount that should rightly have come to him, but an immen.se sum for the times in which he lived, in the establishment of his Catholic colony on the AUeghenies. For some years (1804-1807) he was rewarded with ingratitude. His actions were misconstrued, his words and writings misinterpreted, his character vilified, his honour at- tacked, and even violent hands were laid on his per- son, and all this by members of his own flock. But, with the encouragement of his bishop and the aid of the civil courts, he brought his defamers to acknowl- edge their guilt, for which they voluntarily and pub- licly made full reparation before their fellow Catholics in the Loretto church.
For fourteen years after his ordination Father Gal- litzin was known to the general public as Augustine Smith. This was the name which he subscribed to all his legal papers and to his entries in the pari.sh register of baptisms and marriages. But, fearing serious diffi- culties in the future, at his request, on 16 Dec, 1809, the Pennsylvania legislature validated the acts and purchases uiiidc under that assumed name, and legal- ized the rcsuiiipt inn of his real name. Notwithstand- ing his varie<l lal)ours, Father Gallitzin found time to publish several valuable tracts in favour of tlic ( 'atlm- lic cause. He was the first in the Ignited States to enter the lists of controver.sy in defence of the Church; he was provoked thereto by a sermon delivered on Thanksgiving Day, 1814, in Huntingdon, Pennsylva- VI.— 24
nia, by a certain minister who went out of his way to
attack what he called "popery". Repelling this at-
tack. Father Gallitzin first publi-shed his "Defense of
Catholic Principles", which ran through several edi-
tions and was the means of many conversions. This
was followed by "A Letter on the Holy Scriptures"
and "An Appeal to the Protestant Public".
For twenty years Father Gallitzin had laboured alone in a vast mission whose Catholic population was constantly increasing; in 1834, when Father Lemke was sent to his assistance and was assigned the north- ern part of Cambria County as his sphere of action, the parish of Loretto was restricted within comparatively narrow limits. In the meantime Father Gallitzin's reputation for sanctity, the fame of his talents, and the account of his labours had spread far and wide; and it was his deep humility as well as his love for his community that prevented his advancement to the honours of the Church. He ac- cepted the office of Vicar-General for Western Pennsyl- vania, conferred on him by Bishop Conwell of Phila- delphia, in 1827, because he felt that in that office he could promote the interests of the Church ; but he strongly resisted the proposals to nominate him for the position of first Bishop of Cincinnati and first Bishop of Detroit. For many years before his death he lived in the hope of seeing Loretto made an episcopal see, for Loretto was then a flourishing mission and the centre of a con- stantly increasing Catholic population, while Pittsburg was a small town containing but few Catholics. After forty-one years spent on the rugged heights of the AUeghenies, he died as he had lived, poor. On coming to McGuire's Settlement he found a dense wilderness; he left it dotted with fertile farms. As an evidence of his religious labours in Pennsylvania, it may be stated that within a radius of fifteen miles from the spot on which in 1799 he built his log church there are now no less than twenty-one flourishing parishes, thirty-three priests, and four religious and educational institutions. He was buried, according to his desire, midway be- tween his residence and the church (they were about thirty feet apart); in 1847 his remains were trans- ferred to a vault in a field nearer the town, over which a humble monument was erected out of squared blocks of rough mountain stone. In 1891 his remains were taken from the decayed coffin of cherry wood and placed in a metallic ca-sket; in 1899, on the occasion of the centenary celebration of the foundation of the Loretto Mission, the rude monument was capped by a pedestal of granite, and tliis in turn by a bronze statue of the prince-jirii'sl , clnnaled by Charles M. Schwab, who also built the large stone church, which was sol- emnly consecrated, 2 Oct., 1901.
Lemke, Li-bcn imd Wirken (Munster, 1861); Heyden, Life and Charncler of Hiv. Prince. Demetrius A. de Gallitzin (Balti- more. 1S()9); Brownson, Life of D A. Gallitzin, Prince and I'rt. <l (.\ew York. 1S72); Kittki.i,. S„ur,nxr of Lor<lto Ccnlen- nr:i iCro-isnn, Pa.. isa9); Hart in ColhoUr Worl.l (New York, islini, I.XI; MiDDLETONin Am. Cnlh. Hist. /1/<i,;. ( l>)iiladelphia. IS',13). IV; Pise in U. S. Cath. Hist. Mm,. (Now York, 1890), III; IIeuser in American Catholic Historical Magazine (Phila- delphia. 1895), VI.
Ferdinand Kittell.
