Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin ( born December 22, 1770 in The Hague, † May 6, 1840 in Loretto, Pennsylvania) was a Catholic priest and missionary in the United States, who grew up as the son of Princess Amalie of Gallitzin in Münster and in the circle of Familia sacra was educated.

Origin, childhood and adolescence

Gallitzin was the son of the Russian ambassador in The Hague, as Dmitry Dmitrievič Golicyn (Cyrillic: Дмитрий Дмитриевич Голицын ) born and baptized Russian Orthodox.

His father, Prince Dmitry Alekseevic Golicyn came from one of Russia's oldest noble families, and was ahead of its time in The Hague fourteen years envoy of the Czar in France. There he had dealings with the leaders of the French Enlightenment d' Alembert, Diderot, Voltaire and others.

Demetrius Gallitzin's mother Amalie of Gallitzin, the prince Golicyn had married in 1768, was the daughter of the Prussian Field Marshal Samuel Schmettau. She was, although her father to the inner circle of the Prussian king Frederick the Great was, because of her Catholic mother, the Baroness of Ruffert, also baptized Catholic. Highly educated and introduced by her husband in the circles of the Enlightenment in Paris, she talked too personal or written contact with Voltaire, Diderot and the Claude Adrien Helvetius Encyclopaedists.

To realize the Rousseauian ideal of education in the education of their children Marianne and Demetrius, she moved with them to the separation from her husband in a house in Scheveningen, which should enable the children to grow up in nature. During this time, the friendship between Demetrius Gallitzin and William Frederick, son of the Dutch General Governor William V. was founded. This friendship had still existed, as Wilhelm Friedrich succeeded his father and William I (1815 ) was the King of the Netherlands.

1779 prompted the education reforms of the senior minister of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster Franz Freiherr von Fürstenberg they, with their children to go to Münster. Marianne and Demetrius were together with the cousin Amalie and with Georg Arnold Jacobi, son of the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, taught by her mother, even in Latin, Greek, English, French, German, history, geography and mathematics.

After his mother had turned to 1786, the Catholic Church, also Demetrius converted to Catholicism at age 17 and took it as a middle name the name of Augustine. His father had planned a military career for him and therefore Demetrius was after a military training aide - de-camp of the Austrian commander in Brabant. As Gallitzin after the assassination of Swedish King Gustav III. like other foreigners was discharged from the Austrian service, his parents sent him to the usual grand tour.

As a Catholic priest in America

Arrival and a decision

These among the young nobles of the late 18th century common and usually leading to Italy educational journey brought Demetrius Gallitzin but not to Rome, Venice and Florence, but to the West Indies and North America. Equipped with letters of recommendation to the local bishop came Demetrius Gallitzin on October 28, 1792 in Baltimore. Here he decided to become a Catholic priest and make North America to his field of activity and to his new home. Concerns of the father who feared Demetrius will zwangsenterbt the Tsar when he as a convert, ie, so public agency as an apostate of the Orthodox Church in the service of the Catholic Church, Demetrius Gallitzin could not deter his determination. How justified were the father's concerns became apparent after his death, when Tsar Alexander I Demetrius Gallitzin actually excluded from the paternal inheritance.

From Baltimore to Cambria County

On March 18, 1795 Demetrius Gallitzin was - ordained a Catholic priest - one of the first in the United States. He initially worked in Baltimore and on scattered missions in Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and northern Virginia. In 1796 he was called to the later Cambria County in the Allegheny Mountains in western Pennsylvania. There was a former officer of the revolutionary army and devout Catholic, Michael McGuire, acquired land and McGuire 's Settlement founded, which was later called Clearfield. Gallitzin decided to stay there and make the settlement McGuire's the center of his missionary activities. He was given a plot of land that the late 1793 McGuire had given to the Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore for the construction of a church and bought land in addition to targeted Catholics to settle there. 1799 baptized Gallitzin the place in Loretto order. As namesake served the Italian pilgrimage town of Loreto. Loretto became the first English-language Roman Catholic settlement west of the Allegheny ridge.

Loretto

Loretas built in 1799 parish church had to be enlarged in 1853 and replaced by a stone. Patron saint of the church was the Archangel Michael, whose name also referred to Gallitzin Russian origin and the founder of the settlement Michael McGuire. Since 1802 Gallitzin was under the name Augustine Smith naturalized citizen of the United States. The name Schmidt - Anglicized: Smith - he had to remain incognito, out on his arrival in America. In 1809 he felt free enough to bear the name Smith.

It is believed that Gallitzin U.S. $ 150,000 put out its own assets in the purchase of land and the development and expansion of Loretto. Financial difficulties arose when his inheritance he was withholding the Russian government after the death of his father due to his conversion. Gallitzin was not paid by the church, but earned his living as a farmer. To those who supported him financially during these difficulties, also included the Cardinal Cappellari, later known as Gregory XVI. Pope was, and the Dutch King William I, Gallitzin's childhood friend.

Gallitzin's pioneering work in the development of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania can appreciate, if one compares the approximately 10,000 Catholics living at his death in the district under his care with scarce dozen, which he had found there on his arrival. In addition to serving his parish parish he was also active as a writer and thus became one of the first Catholic controversial theologians of the United States. In attacks of a Presbyterian preacher against " Popery in Pennsylvania " Gallitzin responded with a series of apologetic letters that first appeared in the Gazette and Huntington 1816 came out as the " Defense of Catholic Principles " in Pittsburgh. More theological writings followed in the next twenty years.

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin died on 6 May 1840 in Loretto and was buried next to St. Michael's Church.

Continued operation

Today, Loretto is a small town at the Cambria County with around 1200 inhabitants. It is part of the Catholic Diocese of Altoona - Johnstown. In the neighborhood of Loretto the mining town Gallitzin bears the name of the missionary. The settlement Munster in Cambria County, with around 700 inhabitants reminiscent of the Westphalian Münster, where Demetrius Gallitzin spent his youth.

On 6 June 2005, the " Apostle of the Alleghenys " by the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of was - Saints to the " servant of God" ( servus dei ) appointed. This name is the first step on the way to a possible canonization by the Pope.

Writings

• Defence of Catholic Principles; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1816 ( ie a collection of letters Gallitzin, who had appeared in the Huntington Gazette )
• Letter to a Protestant Friend on the Holy Scriptures; Eben Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1820
• Appeal to the Protestant Public ( 1834)
• Six Letters of Advice ( 1834)