Welcome to Saint Vincent Archabbey

From The Sportsman's Hall Parish Later Named Saint Vincent 1790-1846, By Omer U. Kline, O.S.B., Published by Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 15650-1690, U.S.A. © 1990, 1998 by Omer U. Kline. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Father Gallagher was an Irish immigrant who had been born in Drommore, Ireland, in 1806. He came to the United States when he was fifteen years old, and was employed at Keating's Mills in Manayunk, a suburb of Philadelphia. Later on Bishop Kenrick received him into the old Fourth Street Seminary in Philadelphia to study for the priesthood. And immediately after his 1837 ordination, Bishop Kenrick sent Father Gallagher to Brownsville, the center of a missionary field that included Greene, Washington, Fayette Counties and a part of Somerset County, with an occasional visit into Virginia. During the years that he labored in this vast area, Father Gallagher resided in Brownsville, since Saint Peter's Church was the only one in that district. In April 1839 this church burned down, and Father Gallagher, undaunted, commenced the building of the stately stone edifice that still stands today.
It was shortly after the building of the new Saint Peter's Church had been completed and it had been consecrated that Father Gallagher was transferred to Saint Vincent. Father Lambing states that Father Gallagher arrived at Saint Vincent parish to take up his new duties in the latter part of 1845. That may well be so, but we do know that there are entries in the records of baptisms, marriages and funerals at Saint Vincent's over the signature of Father Michael Gallagher as early as December 1844 and January 1845. And, knowing that Father Stillinger gave up the pastorate of Saint Vincent Parish in November 1844, we can conjecture that Father Gallagher came to the parish shortly thereafter to extend pastoral ministry, if not to be immediately installed as the new pastor. In addition there is preserved in the Saint Vincent Archives, in Father Gallagher's own handwriting, his financial record, entitled "Account with St. Vincent's Church from Nov. 1844 to Nov. 1846," further evidence of his 1844 arrival. There was also a happening in the spring of 1845 that leads one to believe that Father Gallagher had already taken possession of the parochial residence that had recently been vacated by Father Stillinger. This happening involved the Sisters of Mercy who had come to Pittsburgh from Ireland in 1843.