GALLITZIN'S TOMB & MONUMENT

Chiseled into the gray-stone granite pedestal honorably supporting the heroic sized bronze statue of Fr. Gallitzin over his tomb is this indelible epitaph highlighting the touch points of our illustrious Catholic pioneer and priest: "1799. Demetrius Augustine , Prince Gallitzin. Born at The Hague, December 22,1770. Founded Loretto, 1799. Died May 6, 1840. This statue erected to his memory. 1899."

Father Gallitzin standing tall and erect, his Russian Aristocrat persona showing his strong masculine and cultured character, can be seen wearing his skull cap, cassock with shoulder cape, carrying his daily breviary in his left hand and his walking cane in his right hand. This is how one would have seen him in the 1830' s standing outside his church or walking amid his parishioners during the one and forty years he spent here in tireless ministry to the One, True, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, and to his frontier flock to whom he gave everything -spiritual and material. Forever cast in motionless bronze he now rests atop the five ascending levels of limestone and granite blocks that form the tiered monument supporting this larger-than-life American Catholic folk hero. Beneath this massive arrangement of Allegheny Mountain stone, in a hollowed out under-ground crypt which measures 5' high, by 6' wide, by 12' long, its white-washed cement walls and rounded ceiling bearing the scars of old age, lays the ash and dust remains of Dr. Gallitzin. now eternally asleep inside a 2300 lb. sealed air tight vault. A crucifix is out-set near the arched head of the casket. Above this is a copper plated plaque simply inscribed -'Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin. 1770- 1840." And in the left margin of this plate is an embossed depiction of a setting sun somewhere behind a grove of trees on the Alleghenies. One can pilgrimage to this Holy Site, walk thru the gated entry of the fenced enclosure bearing his arched name plate with a surmounting cross, descend the east-lying narrow steps and on thru the low ceilinged entrance tunnel, and walk reverently around the dark and silent aisles of this antique burial crypt. One can touch the coffin, bow and say a prayer, and petition his intercession as did his parishioners of so many years past. The tomb is open to the public at all times. Come visit him in prayer.

Seven years beyond Gallitzin's death on May 6, 1840, plans were under-way in the summer of 1847 by the St. Michael's Church Committee and the pastor, Rev. Hugh Gallagher, to have Gallitzin' s body exhumed from its rapidly deteriorating wooden casket and removed at some indefinite future time to a more fitting place of burial. Fr. Gallitzin had requested entombment for himself in a common grave, simply marked with a mountain headstone, located mid-way between his beloved St. Mary's Chapel and House and the old wooden framed church that was erected on the same plot as was the original log church in which he first celebrated Mass in McGuire' s Settlement in 1799. Gallitzin specifically told his administrators that he wanted buried among his orphan children who pre-deceased him. But in deference to his Last Will and Testament, the peoples of St. Michaels in the late 1840's decided that this holy and saintly man must have a tomb and burial site that was much more visible and hallowed in remembrance than that of a wooden box common grave. One that would do him just honor not only for his memory, but also for the increased number of pilgrims who were finding their way to Loretto to pray and give honor to the Apostle of the Alleghenies. His new tomb and burial site would be an above-ground arrangement situated almost immediately in front of the new church then being planned for St. Michaels -an impressive brick structure to be built
after the full Rites of the Roman Pontifical, and one far more suitable to the needs of Loretto' s growing Catholic congregation. When the necessary funds were arranged and a contractor assigned, the resultant burial monument, rustic yet dignified. presented Fr. Gallitzin in a manner befitting the great and respected dignitaries of state and religion, one which raised the name of the European Gallitzin to a true position of just honor. A high wooden cross towered over the site casting long shadows over the massive stones and mausoleum below. Large blocks of native sandstone and limestone arranged in 3
graded levels supported a large, rectangular stone enclosure much resembling a burial mausoleum. A timbered pedestal- mounted bell flanked the northern approach; a stone entablature on the mausoleum read: "Sacred to the Memory. Of Dem. A. Prince of Gallitzin.--born Dec. 22, 1770, who having renounced Schism was raised to the Priesthood, Exercised the sacred ministry through the whole of this region, And distinguished for faith. zeal, charity, Died May 6,1840." And a small but simple
wooden cross surmounted the mausoleum. It was fastened to a replica of a wooden coffin also set atop the mausoleum, there to remind all who came of the humble arrangements of Gallitzin' s first entombment. Pilgrims could ascend the different stone
tiers of the monument, walk around the mausoleum, feel and touch the stones protecting the sainted one within. A wooden rail fence was provided to help keep roaming cattle from desecrating the site.

With Fr. Kittell's arrival to St. Michaels in April, 1891, some 44 years after the first burial monument was erected, and to which little if anything had been done to in the ensuing years, he immediately set to work to repair this deteriorating historic Catholic
land mark which he said "the frosts of our long and severe [Allegheny] winters have forced apart the stones, leaving large crevices, annually growing deeper, through which the rain and melting snow penetrate to the vault beneath, where the remains of the heroic missionary are preserved. These blocks will have to be re-set and securely clamped so as to maintain them permanently in position; and when this is accomplished. it is proposed to replace the unsightly (and now decayed) wooden cross and coffin which surmounted the so-called monument, with a life-size and life-like statue of the venerable Gallitzin, for which the pile of massive blocks would serve admirably as a pedestal."

It came to be that eight intervening years later Fr. Kittell was to see his dream realized.  To achieve such an ambitious under-taking as he outlined in his pamphlet titled "An Appeal For Funds... To Erect a Suitable Monument to His (Gallitzin's) memory," published in June, 1891, was reasonably beyond the financial means of his mostly agrarian congregation. But with prayerful intercessions to Gallitzin, Sts. Mary, Joseph, and Michael, and by sending his written appeal to the general public, it so happened that Charles Michael Schwab, then President of the Carnegie Steel Company and one of the emerging young millionaires to evolve from America' s Industrial Revolution of the 1890's, was at this time building an impressively large summer home on an eminence over-looking the hill north of the Loretto Village. In addition, Schwab's parents lived in Loretto, and were members of St. Michael's parish. They were very supportive of Fr. Kittell's preservation efforts on behalf of Fr. Gallitzin, and wielded substantial influence over their son's charitable distributions. And so it was during the latter years of the 1890' s that Charlie Schwab, home- town boy made-good, in concert with the church fathers and Rev. Kittell, announced his intentions to donate to our parish a bronze, life- sized statue of Fr. Gallitzin. It would stand atop a new granite pedestal which in turn would set upon those same limestone and sandstone blocks that held up the first monument to Gallitzin put up in 1847. And to add to the beauty and religious atmosphere of this sanctuary for Gallitzin. Schwab also announced that he would under- write all the costs for a basilica-like church edifice that might someday fulfill Gallitzin' s dream of having a diocesan seat in his beloved Loretto.

The year was 1899. It was exactly l00 years since Prince and Rev. D.A. Gallitzin had been assigned his first pastorate, that in McGuire ' s Settlement, by our new nation' s first Catholic Bishop, John Carroll of Baltimore. It was fitting, then, and historically well- timed that on October 10,1899, over 6,000 pilgrims gathered in Loretto around the church grounds to celebrate the Centennial of St. Michael's Parish, and to witness the unveiling of the Gallitzin statue and renovated under-ground tomb enclosure as well as the new fenced-in monument which graced the .lawns in front of the old brick church. From his elevated position atop the monument, Gallitzin could preside over his parish grounds and buildings, the comings and goings of his parishioners, and over the entire construction project of the new stone church, occupied for the first occasion on October, 1901.

Over the 100-plus years since the present tomb and monument complex were first given to the public and to the parishioners of St. Michaels, few events of significant impact have changed the environment of this monument. The towering wooden cross on the west approach has been taken down. The glass-covered coffin lid is gone and no longer gives visual entry to Gallitzin' s remains. There are many still who remember Gallitzin' s in-tact skull and the silk-like appearance of his grayish ashes. In 1972 Gallitzin was knocked off his pedestal by a falling tree -and he survived un-hurt. In 1991 Gallitzin's walking stick was taken (now replaced). Most of the giant spruce trees standing around the monument have been removed. In 2000 the statue was sand-blasted. repaired and weather treated. But each year the blooming flowers re-appear in spring lasting well into the frosts of Fall. Green grasses cover the gentle slopes leading up on and down to the fenced- in shrine. The old spear and picket fence with its poppy-headed post finials still stand sentinel-like around the tomb. And the pilgrims still travel here from all the countries of the world to raise in prayer their testaments of supplication and intercession. Some just to stand and wonder in what Divine Plan this Russian Prince was sent here to the wilds of a new country with all its forms of sacrifice, leaving behind a life of luxury and ease, of fame and inheritance.

There he stands, our Fr. Gallitzin, looking to the West and the Heavens of the Great Beyond. He knew his Catholic religion had no frontiers. Here he lies buried so very far from home and family. This American adventure was his ultimate sacrifice to his God and to his Faith.

Come visit our Loretto sanctuary.  Feel the inspiration and communion of its silence and its past.