OUR HISTORY

O UNDING FATHER OF EDUCATION F

Father Gabriel Richard’s academic endeavors in Michigan

JOE BOGGS, a parishioner at St. John the Baptist in Monroe, has written about local history for more than a decade. He has been married to Bridget for eight years and teaches history at a public high school in Perrysburg.

HE COINED DETROIT’S ICONIC CITY MOTTO AFTER A DEVASTATING FIRE IMPERILED ITS FUTURE.

AS AN ELECTED MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, HE DUTIFULLY SERVED THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN AT A CRUCIAL TIME AND WAS THE FIRST PRIEST EVER TO BE A CONGRESSMAN. WHILE MINISTERING TO THE GRAVELY SICK DURING A PANDEMIC, HE CAUGHT THE DISEASE HIMSELF AND DIED DAYS LATER.

Main image: Fr. Gabriel Richard, perhaps the most well-known priest in Detroit’s history, was an educator, politician, developer and city-builder, but his heart always remained with the people of the city of Detroit, especially his parishioners at Ste. Anne Parish, where he is buried today. Pictured is a bust of Fr. Richard that rests upon his tomb. (Photo by Tim Hinkle)

Background: The Catholepistemiad building established in 1818. (Illustration by Silas Farmer)

The extraordinary life of Father Gabriel Richard, a pastor who served at Ste. Anne’s in Detroit from 1798 to 1832, is now being closely analyzed. Church officials are trying to determine whether to begin the lengthy canonization process in earnest. Simultaneously, the recently formed Father Gabriel Richard Guild is working to promote the lasting legacy of this area priest and encourage local Catholics to pray for his intercession.

It is doubtful, however, that he would have considered himself a saint. Father Richard was a man of great humility, but his contemporaries, ranging from bishops to presidents, praised his many talents and activities. Foremost among his lifelong passions, Father Richard tirelessly worked for the education of Southeast Michigan’s youth despite numerous setbacks. Father Richard’s persevering pursuit of education for all left a legacy of learning that continues to impact our region today.

It’s important to remember that Father Richard was not always fond of academic endeavors.

Initial reports from the French Catholic boarding school his parents sent him to were not promising. The schoolmaster indicated in several letters home that the teenage Richard was mischievous, took nothing seriously and cared very little for advancing himself in the classroom.

Then, during Gabriel’s second year at school, a dramatic event seemingly transformed the teen. The prankish youngster decided to climb scaffolding that was being used to erect a new chapel next to the school. Gabriel lost his footing, fell about 25 feet and sustained serious facial injuries that would disfigure his jaw for the rest of his life.

Apparently, there was discussion about expelling the 13-year-old Gabriel Richard, but the school administrators decided the traumatic fall was punishment enough. They were right; Gabriel learned his lesson. On June 14, 1781, he wrote a letter home to his parents apologizing for all the headaches he caused them. “I beg your forgiveness for all my disobedience to you and for all the sins I have caused you to commit,” wrote Gabriel. In addition, he expressed sorrow for “all the quarrels you have had, of which I have been the cause through my misbehavior.”

After the traumatic accident, Gabriel soared to the top of his class. Reports from the boarding school a year after the accident were now glowing with praise and he graduated with top honors in numerous subjects. With the encouragement of a schoolmaster, Gabriel enrolled in the Sulpician Society seminary and later discerned he was being called to the priesthood. By the time he finished there, as one historian has noted, Richard had become a “scholar of considerable stature.”

Yet as the seminarian finished up his theological studies, his country was crumbling around him. What began as moderate reforms in the late 1780s quickly gave way to radical measures. Every entity and institution associated with the old regime was targeted, including the Catholic Church. The revolutionary government demanded that the Church completely submit to the new state and sever its ties with the Vatican.

Out of 132 bishops and about 50,000 clergy members, only four bishops and a handful of priests and nuns submitted to the revolutionary government. The Church essentially went underground and much of its property was confiscated. Hundreds of French priests and consecrated religious were publicly martyred for the faith.

In this chaotic context, the scholarly seminarian was ordained on Oct. 9, 1791, in a private house with a secret chapel. Father Gabriel Richard’s dreams of celebrating his first Mass in his hometown or becoming a professor in a French seminary were now impossible. Behind the scenes, the Sulpician seminary was able to obtain safe passage to America for him and other priests. Richard’s ship departed on April 9, 1792. He would never see his native country or family ever again.

Fast forward to the summer of 1798. After a brief stay in Baltimore — the seat of the Catholic Church in America — and serving five long years on the Illinois frontier as a missionary priest, Father Richard arrived at Ste. Anne’s in Detroit. Obeying the orders of his superior, Father Michael Levadoux, Father Richard spent much

of his first couple years ministering to the northern congregations of the expansive parish near Lake St. Clair and the Straits of Mackinac. It was on Mackinac Island where Father Richard seems to have first put his teaching charism to good use.

In a letter to Baltimore’s Bishop John Carroll, Father Richard described his educational endeavors. He taught catechesis every morning and opened the island church for evening prayer followed by lively discussion about “different points of Christian doctrine.” Father Richard reported that many locals attended at night and traders from far away distances flocked to these makeshift religious seminars.

After several months of witnessing spiritual growth but widespread addiction to alcohol, Father Richard actually asked his superior if he could be permitted an extended stay in the Straits region. Father Levadoux declined the request, as his own health was declining. He needed the vigorous Father Richard back in Detroit. Just two years later, Father Levadoux would resign his position due to lingering illness.

Right around the same time that Father Richard took the priestly helm at Ste. Anne’s, the United States acquired considerable territory to its west with the Louisiana Purchase. Father Richard immediately thought of the need to establish a seminary to supply the future western Church with priests. In turn, he and his associate pastor, Father Jean Dilhet, began to encourage local boys to consider enrolling in a “clergy school.” In October 1804, the school opened with nine pupils. The curriculum consisted of history, geography, Latin, sacred music and prayer. This junior seminary, however, only operated for a year.

A devastating event in Detroit played a considerable role in the school’s quick demise. On June 11, 1805, a fast-moving inferno engulfed the frontier city made almost entirely out of wood. Detroit was burned to the ground in just a few hours. Ste. Anne’s pastor took immediate action. “Day and night,” Father Richard sought to assist all who were left homeless “without regard to creed or race.” The French priest negotiated with American military officials to secure tents and other provisions for the needy. Father Richard was also able to obtain emergency foodstuffs from farmers throughout the Detroit River region. The city of Detroit’s enduring motto, Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus — “We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes” — was coined by Father Richard in the aftermath of the fire.

From the ashes, numerous educational projects seemingly arose from the mind of Father Richard. In 1806, the priest petitioned local government officials “for the purpose of erecting a young ladies school.” Father Richard recruited four young French Catholic women to spearhead the new school. Within a couple of years, 30 female scholars were in attendance. The pastor of Ste. Anne believed so much in the education of the region’s ladies that Father Richard wrote in his will that all of his possessions and money would go directly to the four female instructors.

Unfortunately, the Spring Hill school ultimately failed in just a few years. Though students attended and learned, financial support was the primary issue. Father Richard actually traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1809 to secure assistance from the federal government, emphasizing the fact that local indigenous students had little food to eat and not much to wear. President Thomas Jefferson and federal officials verbally supported the mission of Father Richard’s school, but federal funding for Spring Hill never materialized. Unable to support Spring Hill himself, Richard could only look on as the farm school was sold away at public auction a few years later.

Soon thereafter, tensions mounted between the United States and Great Britain. The War of 1812 commenced in the Detroit region and many of the midwestern Native warriors took up arms on the British side. Brutal warfare and extreme poverty gripped Southeast Michigan and Detroit itself was surrendered. Father Richard, due to his open criticism of British conduct during the war, was imprisoned for a time in Canada, though he was quickly released.

It took the region several years to recover from the devastating effects of war. Through it all, Father Richard was a driving force behind the recovery. Thankfully, the federal government came to the assistance of the area’s residents suffering from hunger and property loss. Unsurprisingly Richard, “a gentleman … of unquestioned purity and virtue” as noted in one official communication, was selected to distribute the aid. A visit by Quebec’s Bishop Joseph-Octave Plessis in 1816 further documented the ever-active Father Richard during these years of recovery:

“He has the talent of doing, almost simultaneously, 10 entirely different things … thoroughly learned in theology, he reaps his hay, gathers the fruits of his garden, manages a fishery fronting his lot, teaches mathematics to one young man, reading to another, devotes his time to mental prayer, establishes a printing press, confesses all his people, imports carding and spinning-wheels and looms to teach the women of his parish how to work, leaves not a single act of his parochial register unwritten, mounts an electrical machine, goes on sick calls at a very great distance, writes letters and receives others from all parts,

“FATHER RICHARD’S PERSEVERING PURSUIT OF EDUCATION FOR ALL LEFT A LEGACY OF LEARNING THAT CONTINUES TO IMPACT OUR REGION TODAY.”

preaches every Sunday and holyday [sic] both lengthily and learnedly … ”

The bishop, believe it or not, left a few things off the list. At the time of the bishop’s visit, Father Richard also began to engage in cordial conversations with John Monteith, the new Presbyterian minister in town. They shared similar ideas about education and the two talked openly about grand ideas for a “university” for the Territory of Michigan. A year later, the University of Michigania, or the “Catholepistemiad,” was established by law. Much different than its current status today, the University of Michigan was envisioned by its founding members to actually be a system of public schools ranging from elementary to college. In fact, Father Richard and Monteith opened up an elementary academy in Detroit in 1818 that was actually the first University of Michigan. One hundred eighty young pupils coming from both poor and prominent families attended. Monteith served as its first president and Richard as its vice president.

Like many of the educational ventures he helped initiate, Father Richard did not witness the University of Michigan’s full flowering into an elite academic institution. Father Richard died in 1832 while heroically serving the people of Detroit in the midst of a cholera outbreak.

Joe Serwach, the vice president of the Father Gabriel Richard Guild and a graduate of the University of Michigan, asserts that Father Richard should be remembered as the primary founder of Michigan’s robust educational system. Serwach also points out that Father Richard was a visionary, advocating for educational ideas and endeavors decades ahead of his time. “The University of Michigan began in 1817 — 20 years before Michigan was even a state. The first plans for a seminary — though not carried out until years later — were his. The first printing press was also brought here by Father Richard,” shared Serwach.

In one of his final letters that posterity has preserved, Father Gabriel Richard admitted, “God knows how many other large and small mission and school projects pass through my head for the Indians, for the deaf mutes, for the poor children, but the means are lacking in a new country where it is necessary to create something from nothing.” Later in the letter, he expressed how he could not stop “thinking that happier days will soon shine for Michigan.”

As scholars and Church officials currently evaluate the merits of Father Richard’s cause for sainthood, one aspect of his life does not need to be debated. Father Gabriel Richard’s efforts on behalf of education in Southeast Michigan were remarkable. His endeavors and ideas about providing high-quality schooling experiences for the poor, the marginalized and those considering religious life provided a firm foundation for future generations of local scholars.

A 1794 sketching of Detroit, just a few years before Fr Gabriel Richard arrived. (Courtesy of the Detroit Public Library’s Digital Collections)