Background
Hugh Patrick Gallagher was born on March 26, 1815, at Killygordon, Donegal, Ireland.
Hugh Patrick Gallagher was born on March 26, 1815, at Killygordon, Donegal, Ireland.
Prior to his emigration to America in 1837, Gallagher had completed his philosophical course and was studying theology. He continued his study in the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo in Overbrook, Pa. , and was there ordained by Bishop F. P. Kenrick on September 27, 1840.
Assigned to St. Patrick’s Church in Pottsville, Gallagher was so aroused by the ravages of intemperance that he formed a total abstinence society of about 5, 000 members. He is said to have introduced in 1843 the Sisters of Mercy into the Pittsburgh diocese and to have founded in 1844 the Pittsburgh Catholic.
As pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Butler from 1841 to 1844, he ministered to 1, 800 parishioners, largely German and Irish immigrants. Sent to Father Gallitzin’s parish at Loretto in the latter year, he commenced a church which was completed by his brother and successor, Father Joseph A. Gallagher.
He invited the Sisters of Mercy to establish schools; encouraged the Franciscan Brothers who founded their mother-house and St. Francis College for boys; and arranged a parochial budget based on pew rents.
Appointed a theologian at the First Plenary Council of Baltimore, Gallagher attracted the attention of Bishop Alemany who induced him to go in 1852 to his California diocese. The future career of “Father Hugh, ” as he came to be known in the frontier towns, mining camps, and in San Francisco, was colorful.
He was of untold assistance to Archbishop Alemany as a leader of the Irish priests and congregations. An organizer and builder, he constructed St. Dominic’s Church at Benicia, St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s at Yreka, and chapels or churches at Shasta, Weaverville, Carson City, Reno, Virginia City, and Stockton.
He commended the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Oakland and aided in building St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco. In 1853, he founded the Catholic Standard, the first Catholic paper on the Coast.
The following year, he brought from Rome the pallium for the newly named archbishop. At this time, while in Ireland, he enlisted a group of Presentation nuns from Cork and some Sisters of Mercy from Kinsale under Sister Mary Baptist Russell, a sister of Lord Chief Justice Russell of Killowen, who along with a few priests and seminarians accompanied him to California by way of the tedious New York-Panama route.
As a patron of these communities, he aided in the establishment of schools, orphanages, a Magdalen home for wayward girls - for which he obtained a small legislative grant, and St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco, which was presided over by Sister Mary Baptist for forty years. When the Adams Express Company closed their California offices in 1855, he was entrusted by miners and laborers with their savings, which in the aggregate amounted to millions.
In 1861, with the aid of his brother, who had followed him westward, he created St. Joseph’s parish and church with its model school and hall. Indeed, he is accredited with the introduction of the parochial school system into the diocese.
In time his robust constitution gave way. After a fruitless visit to Ireland in search of health, he retired to St. Mary’s Hospital where he succumbed to pneumonia.
In the hard years of 1869 and 1870, Gallagher successfully advocated the improvement of Golden Gate Tark as a measure of unemployment relief.
Gallagher made frequent pilgrimages to Europe and was in close correspondence with the Holy See.
1783 - 13 August 1836
1782 - 19 December 1852
1817 - 26 October 1873
1821 - 5 April 1887
1823 - 23 August 1906
30 December 1806 - 18 July 1884
1 February 1816 - 20 December 1888
