Gabriel Richard
| Father Gabriel Richard | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Father Gabriel Richard
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| Born |
Gabriel Richard October 15, 1767 La Ville de Saintes, France. |
| Died | September 13, 1832 (aged 64) Detroit, Michigan |
| Cause of death | Cholera |
| Resting place | Crypt in St. Anne's. |
Father Gabriel Richard (October 15, 1767 – September 13, 1832) was a French Roman Catholic priest and founder of the University of Michigan who became a Delegate from Michigan Territory to the U.S. House of Representatives.
He was born in La Ville de Saintes, France and entered the seminary in Angers in 1784 and was ordained on October 15, 1790. In 1792, he emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland. He taught mathematics at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, until being assigned by Bishop Carroll to do missionary work to the Indians in the Northwest Territory. He was first stationed in what is now Kaskaskia, Illinois, and later in Detroit, Michigan. Fr. Richard was a priest of the Society of Saint-Sulpice.
Richard arrived in Detroit on the Feast of Corpus Christi in June 1798 to be the assistant pastor at Ste. Anne's Church. In 1804 he opened a school in Detroit, but this was destroyed by the fire that leveled the city in 1805. This is when Fr. Gabriel Richard wrote the city of Detroit's motto: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus; In English: "We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes." Fr. Richard organized the shipment of food aid to the city from neighboring ribbon farms in order to alleviate a food crisis following the loss of the city's supply of livestock and grain.
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