As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, it is good to look back at the establishment of the Church in the USA as well. The nation that was being born was even then a land of immigrants from many countries, not just from England, and people from many lands made important contributions.
Among them, the French played multiple roles. Not only did the country of France provide financial and military aid to American independence; French priests fleeing persecution in their homeland also contributed significantly to the establishment of Catholicism on this side of the Atlantic.
The French National Assembly (the revolutionary government) imposed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790 to try to create a national Church largely controlled by the state. Most bishops and about half of the parish priests refused to take the oath of acceptance of this legislation. Those who refused—”refractory priests”—were persecuted. The United States benefitted from the resulting exile of faithful clergy.
One clear case is the nation's first seminary, founded in Baltimore in 1791 by the first US bishop, John Carroll. French Sulpician priests helped establish it, and continued to direct it until the beginning of the 20th century.
This seminary truly served as the womb of American Catholicism. More than half of US dioceses were founded by Frenchmen, and 44 bishops in the United States came from France. Among these founders was Father Gabriel Richard, who was also a Sulpician and a refractory priest. He would become the “second founder of Detroit” and a member of the US Congress.
A very energetic priest
Gabriel Richard was born in Saintes, France, on October 15, 1767. A vocation started to grow in his heart, and he entered the seminary of Angers in 1784. On October 10, 1790, he joined the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice, a community dedicated to teaching, particularly in seminaries. He received priestly ordination on October 9, 1791.
In the spring of 1792, Father Richard refused to take an oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He left for the United States with other Sulpicians who were sent there for safety. They also went to answer the call of Bishop Carroll, who needed foreign missionaries to found the Baltimore seminary.
Once there, the Sulpician settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he taught mathematics at the seminary. Gabriel Richard was a very energetic priest. During a visit, Bishop Joseph-Octave Plessis of Quebec marveled at him, noting, “He has the talent of doing, almost simultaneously, ten different things.”
Because of this remarkable energy, Bishop Carroll first sent him on a mission to the West among the Native Americans, to Kaskaskia in the current state of Illinois. The indigenous people of this territory knew the French priests well, since they had been evangelized by missionaries like Father Jacques Marquette, as the Illinois country belonged to New France.
“The Good Father”
Father Richard was then assigned to the city of Detroit, Michigan, where he arrived on June 7, 1798, for the feast of Corpus Christi. He served as a vicar at St. Anne's Church, becoming its pastor in 1802. At the time, almost all of the inhabitants of Detroit were of French descent.
He was a hyperactive and benevolent priest, ministering to both the European and Native American populations. His parishioners nicknamed him “The Good Father.”
He was so engaged that he seemed to be everywhere at once. Father Richard served as the pastor of his Catholic community, the director of both a boys’ and a girls’ school, a teacher, and the founder of Michigan's first newspaper (Michigan Essay: or, The Impartial Observer, published in 1809). He even acquired looms and learned weaving techniques.
As an indefatigable missionary, he crisscrossed the vast territory of the Great Lakes to meet the faithful and establish new parishes. His flock included European pioneers, but also many Native Americans. Gabriel Richard was very close to the indigenous people, whom he constantly defended against the settlers of European origin by writing regularly to the federal government. As he noted regarding their treatment, “It is well known by everyone that they have been grossly cheated.”
Elected to Congress
A fire ravaged the city of Detroit on June 11, 1805. The good Father Richard was highly active in helping the population. So much is this the case, that he is considered the “second founder of Detroit,” one of the key leaders who directed the city's reconstruction. He conceived the Latin motto for the newly rebuilt Detroit: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus (“We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes”).
When the University of Michigan was founded in 1817, Gabriel Richard served as its vice president and as a teacher. Through this university, the priest played a highly important role in educating the population.
In 1823, the inhabitants designated Gabriel Richard by popular vote to be a delegate for the Michigan Territory to the House of Representatives in Washington. Because Michigan was not yet a state, it was represented by a “nonvoting delegate” who served only an advisory role, unlike standard representatives and senators. Gabriel Richard thus became the first Catholic priest to serve as a member of Congress, remaining there for two years.
A victim of his own selflessness
A cholera epidemic struck Detroit and its surrounding region in 1832. Father Gabriel Richard immediately brought aid to the sick, but caught the disease himself. He died on September 13, 1832. The “Good Father” thus died as he had lived: in the service of others.
In 1976, his body was transferred to the crypt of St. Anne's Church in Detroit, the very place where he had exercised his apostolate. A cause for his beatification has been introduced, promoted by the Father Gabriel Richard Guild since 2020. His memory remains very present in Detroit and throughout Michigan, where several schools bear his name.
His story is told in numerous sources, in English and also in French, such as Les Racines françaises du catholicisme américain by Charles Vaugirard.
