Posted on 06/12/2005 9:44:20 AM PDT by NYer
Loretto, PA., Jun. 10, 2005 (CNA) - A Russian prince who left his wealth behind to come to America and be the first priest ordained in the United States has received his first nod from the Vatican on his road to sainthood.
The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints has named Fr. Demetrius Gallitzin a Servant of God, announced Bishop Joseph Adamec of Altoona-Johnstown on Monday.
Fr. Gallitzin left Europe at age 29 and entered a Baltimore monastery in 1795. He became the first priest to be ordained in the U.S. After his ordination, he used his inherited wealth to buy part of what is current-day Loretto, and to build sawmills, gristmills, tanneries, a church and a farm.
Fr. Gallitzin is also known as the "Apostle of the Alleghenies" for bringing Catholicism to south-central Pennsylvania, reported the Associated Press. He died in 1840 of a strangulated hernia related to a fall from a horse years earlier.
Bishop Adamec has asked Catholics to submit any information about Fr. Gallitzin to the diocese and to report any favors received as a result of Fr. Gallitzin’s intercession. A miracle is necessary for his beatification.
by James Hazelrigg
Somewhere along the line, in this age of aggiornamento (renewal), a good many priests and bishops allowed themselves to be derailed from pursuing the primary objective of their vocations - the salvation of souls. Shepherds too often prefer socializing with their flock rather than nourishing them with sound doctrine, good example, and pious exhortation.
"Well," we hear it said all the time, "our priests are only human you know," as if we needed to be enlightened on that point. I think everyone agrees, even us frustrated sticklers to tradition, that our white-collared levites are not impeccable. We know they really are human, although certain dear mothers who gave us our priests might not like to admit it. But we lay folk seem to have an easier time loving God when we see our clergy living as though they were "superhuman," - which is nothing more than living holily.
The following story is of just such a priest, not a canonized saint, at least yet, but just one of those good old fashioned "superhuman" guys, whose hands we used to kiss with awe and reverence. This is the story of Father Demetrius Gallitzin, a Russian nobleman and convert, who became the great Apostle of the Alleghenies in the early days of our country.
Editor
Fascinating stuff.
PREFACE
A SERMON preached by a Protestant Minister, on a day appointed by the government for humiliation and prayer, in order to avert from our beloved country the calamity of war, has been the occasion of the present letter.
The professed subject of his sermon on such a day was, or should have been, to excite his hearers to humility and contrition, and to a perfect union of hearts and exertions during the impending storm: but he, very likely alarmed at a much greater danger, of which nobody else but himself dreamed: alarmed I mean, and trembling for the ark of Israel likely to be carried off by those Philistines called the Roman Catholics; or alarmed, perhaps , at the very probable danger of an intended invasion from the Pope, who would, to be sure, avail himself of the confused state of the country to assist his English friends in the conquest of it, that he might by that means extend his jurisdiction; or in fine, alarmed perhaps lest our treacherous Catholics would take advantage of the times, and by forming a new gunpowder-plot, would blow up the congress-hall, state-houses, and all the protestant meeting-houses of the United States: alarmed, at least, by something or another, he suddenly forgets his subject, and putting on a grave countenance, enters the most solemn caveat against popish and heathen neighbours; cautions his hearers against their superstitions, and gives them plainly enough to understand that such popish neighbours are not to be considered their fellow citizens.
Attacks of that kind being so very common in this liberal country, I have always treated them with silent contempt. The present one, proceeding from a respectable quarter, I thought necessary to notice; and I expected that a few respectful lines, which I published in a Gazette, would have been sufficient to draw from the gentleman an apology for his uncharitable expressions. I found myself deceived in my expectation. After having waited in vain from September until some time in the winter, I made up my mind to send the gentleman the following DEFENCE OF CATHOLIC PRINCIPLES.
A DEFENCE, &c.
Dear Sir,
AFTER your unprovoked attack upon the whole body of Roman Catholics, it was expected that an apology for the same would have been considered by you as due to them. To exhibit above one hundred millions of catholics as standing upon a level with heathens; to represent the whole of them as a superstitious set, wandering in the paths of darkness, and finally to exclude the catholics of the United States from their rank of citizens, cannot be considered by you as a trifling insult. Now, sir, as a gentleman, you cannot be ignorant of the common principles of civility. As a christian, and especially as a teacher of the christian religion, you cannot be ignorant of that great precept of christian charity which our blesses Saviour declares to be the very soul of religion, on which depend the whole law and the prophets, Matt. xxii, 40. Wishing to act under the influence of those principles, I shall, according to the direction of your and my Saviour, (Matt. v, 44) return you good for evil, and pray God to bless you whilst you are persecuting and calumniating us. However, as you refuse us (what we think we are justly entitled to) an apology, I shall step forward in the name of my catholic brethren, and give you and the public an explanation of our principles, which will convince you, I trust, that we are not guilty of superstition.
If, instead of accusing us in a general manner, you had been pleased to state distinctly in what particular points we are guilty of superstition, a great deal of time would have been saved, as my defence would be confined to those particular points of attack; but now, not knowing for which particular points the attack is intended, I must be ready at all points.
In order to ascertain whether we are or not guilty of superstition, it will be necessary, in the first place, to give a distinct definition of the word superstition. Many disputes originate altogether in the misunderstanding of words, and might be entirely avoided by first agreeing about the meaning of those words.
Collet, a great divine of the Gallican church, gives the following definition of the word superstition, which you will readily grant to be correct.
Superstilio (says he) est inordinatus cultus veri vel falsi numinis — which I thus give in plain English: Superstition is an inordinate worship of the true, or of a false divinity.
To accuse us of superstition then, is to say, that we either worship the true God in an inordinate mannor, or that we worship false Gods, or that we are guilty of both.
To which of the tenets of the catholic church does any of these three modes of superstition apply?
I reply boldly, to none: and in order to convince you and your hearers that I am justifiable in saying so, I shall give you a short sketch of our catholic principles; but do not expect to find, arrayed amongst them, those pretended catholic principles which ignorance, prejudice, and, I am apprehensive, sometimes malice and ill-will, falsely attributed to catholics. This I shall say nothing about the infallibility of the Pope, the Pope’s power to grant licenses to commit sin, or dispensations from the oath of allegiance, about the worship of saints, and many other articles falsely attributed to Roman catholics, and which (I have too much reason to believe) are industriously propagated to answer certain iniquitous purposes.
May the great God give me grace to display before your eyes, and before the eyes of the public, the beauties and perfections of the catholic church.
. . .
Not exactly the first priest ordained in the United States. In 1685, the Bishop of Cuba ordained a priest in St Augustine.
Did I see "Priest"?
Amazing! Bump for later read!
Thanks for posting this!
ping
technicalities....
US history classes mention very little about the Catholic missions set up in Florida and California or the Orthodox missions in Alaska. That stuff is un-pc.
Well, Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore as a colony for Catholics. I'm not sure under whose jurisdiction the California missions of the late 18th and early 19th centuries fell (possibly Vere Cruz or Mexico City), but St Augustine and the Florida missions of the 17th century were under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Cuba and the Order of Friars Minor.
All I know is that it was the Bishop of Cuba who made visitation to St Augustine around 1685. He toured the missions and confirmed over 30,000 believers from the native Timucua and Apalachee. The Diocese of St Augustine didn't come until the 19th century (Florida was bounced around between Spain, Britain, USA and CSA between 1763 and 1865). Spain received the Louisiana territory in 1763, and got the two Floridas back in 1783. It would make sense to attach the small Catholic communities in St Augustine, New Smyrna, Pensacola and Mobile to the larger one in New Orleans.
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