Nicolaus Aloysius Gallagher
Nicolaus Aloysius Gallagher was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Galveston from 1892 until his death in 1918.Biography
One of eleven children, Nicolaus Gallagher was born in Temperanceville, Belmont County, Ohio, to John and Mary Ann Gallagher. At age 10 was placed under the care of the pastor of Coshocton, who tutored him in English, grammar, Latin, and Greek for six years. In 1862 he entered Mount St. Mary's of the West Seminary at Cincinnati, where he studied philosophy and theology. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Sylvester Horton Rosecrans on December 25, 1868.
Gallagher then served as curate at St. Patrick's Church in Columbus until 1871, when he became president of St. Aloysius Seminary. He returned to St. Patrick's as pastor in 1876, and became administrator of the Diocese of Columbus in 1878. In 1880 he was named vicar general of the diocese. Upon the retirement of Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis, he became administrator of the Diocese of Galveston, Texas, in 1881.
On January 10, 1882, Gallagher was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Galveston and Titular Bishop of Canopus by Pope Leo XIII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following April 30 from Bishop Edward Fitzgerald, with Bishops John Claude Neraz and Dominic Manucy serving as co-consecrators, at St. Mary's Cathedral. In 1886, he opened the first Catholic school for African American children in Texas. He later succeeded Bishop Dubuis as the third Bishop of Galveston on December 16, 1892.
He introduced into the diocese the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Jesuits, Basilian Fathers, Paulist Fathers, Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic and many other religious congregations, which founded churches, schools, and hospitals throughout the diocese. He established St. Mary's Seminary at La Porte in 1901, and Good Shepherd Home for Delinquent Girls at Houston in 1914. He also erected parishes for Mexican immigrants in Austin and Houston, and for African Americans in Houston, Beaumont, and Port Arthur. He reconstructed all the Catholic institutions destroyed by the 1900 Galveston hurricane. At the beginning of his tenure, the diocese had 30,000 Catholics and 50 parishes; by the time of his death, there were 70,000 Catholics and 120 parishes.
Gallagher later died at age 71. His funeral Mass was celebrated by Bishop Theophile Meerschaert, and he was buried at St. Mary's Cathedral.
