Gabriel Richard

Gabriel Richard ( ; October 15, 1767 – September 13, 1832) was a French Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice. Richard ministered to the French Catholics in the parish of Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit, as well as Protestants and Native Americans living in Southeast Michigan. The calls for him to be named as a saint began in 2020.

Richard was born in La Ville de Saintes, France, in 1767 and studied at the Seminary of Angers. He was ordained as a Sulpician priest in 1790. During the French Revolution, he refused to swear the oath to the secular French Republic and fled to the United States, transitorily settling in Baltimore. Later, Bishop John Carroll assigned him to do missionary work in the Northwest Territory.

Richard arrived in Detroit in 1798 as an assistant pastor at Sainte Anne's Church, where he quickly became known for converting the hearts of the Native Americans when he went about preaching. He was a strong proponent of perpetual adoration of the Eucharist. In 1802, he became the rector of Sainte Anne's Church. During his tenure, he not only oversaw the seminary and French Christian schools in the region but also commenced new schools for both boys and girls and built a library for the church.

Following the Great Fire of 1805, Richard helped to create a new layout for Detroit and, in 1808, proposed the establishment of the ''Catholepistemiad'', known today as the University of Michigan. He became the founding vice president of the university in 1817 and later served on its board of trustees. In 1823, he became the first Roman Catholic priest to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a delegate from the Michigan Territory for the 18th Congress. He died in 1832 during a cholera epidemic while caring for patients.

Though Richard lived in the late 18th century through the early 19th century, well after the actual founding of Detroit, he was often celebrated as one of the four honorary founders of the city, alongside Antoine Cadillac, Jacques Marquette and the Sieur de La Salle. The motto Richard wrote in the aftermath of the fire of 1805, ''Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus'' ("We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes") is inscribed on the seal of the city. Provided by Wikipedia