Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (born Dec. 22, 1770, The Hague, Neth.—died May 6, 1840, Loretto, Pa., U.S.) was one of the first Roman Catholic priests to serve as a missionary to European immigrants in the United States during the early 19th century. He was known as the “Apostle of the Alleghenies.” Of noble Russian parentage (his father was Prince Dmitry Alekseyevich Golitsyn, Russian ambassador to the Dutch Republic), Gallitzin converted to Roman Catholicism in 1787. He...