If you had one of the largest fortunes in Europe, what would you do
with it? Demetrius Gallitzin answered that question by putting it to use
for God.
It is surprising that Demetrius learned to love God at all. Although
his mother had been baptized as a child, she lost her faith at a young
age when a tutor taught her atheism. As for Demetrius' father, he was an
ambassador from Russia to European courts. He had been raised in the
Orthodox Church, but in France he accepted the writings of Voltaire,
Diderot and other Freethinkers, and sneered at Christianity. Demetrius
was reared on these radical ideas.
But something stirred in his mother's heart. She re-examined the
claims of Christianity and returned to her childhood faith. She began to
plead with her son, to write him letters, and to pray for him. Demetrius
finally made up his mind to study religious systems to see if any were
worth following. As a result, he converted to Roman Catholicism. Ever
afterward, he believed that this denomination held the only route to
salvation.
The young man enlisted in the Austrian army, but political changes
forced him out. His father advised him to study engineering in the
United States, and so Gallitzin sailed to the new world.
There he was shocked to discover how few Catholics there were. At
that time, laws discriminated against Catholics. Demetrius determined to
build up the church. His Orthodox Church relatives were dead set against
it, but he attended seminary and was ordained in 1795.
Gallitzin took over a small parish in Pennsylvania. It had only a
dozen members. Gallitzen traveled, taught and worked without rest. He
poured his fortune into buying lands for Catholic settlers and slogged
across the Alleghenies carrying the gospel into the untamed heart of the
continent. Because of this he is known as "The Apostle of the
Alleghenies." His flock grew to 10,000 people.
Gallitzen also defended Catholics against accusations. He wrote in
his
Defense of Catholic Principles:"The main point to be
explained now is, in what manner we believe that Jesus Christ has
accomplished the redemption of man, We believe that Jesus Christ, in
order to become a victim of propitiation for our sins, assumed human
nature, which being united to his divine nature, formed one person. As
God, he could not suffer: by becoming a real man, assuming a real human
soul, and a real human body, he made himself liable to sufferings; and
by being God, his sufferings became an infinite value, and of course
adequate as a satisfaction [for man's sins]."
On one of his trips, Demetrius took a nasty fall, which left him with
a double hernia. After that, he had to travel by sledge. Forty-one years
after he began his work in America, he died
on this
day, Easter Sunday, May 6, 1840. In all those years, he never
took a penny of salary even after Russia confiscated most of his fortune
because he had converted to Catholicism.
Bibliography:
- Gallitzin , Demetrius A. A defence of Catholic principles, in a
letter to a Protestant minister. London : W. E. Andrews, 1824.
- 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. Baltimore, J.
Murphy, New York, Catholic Publication Society, 1869.
- Kittell, Ferdinand. "Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin."
The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
- Various encyclopedia and internet articles.
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