Gallitzin's part in building up the Roman Catholic church in western Pennsylvania cannot be overestimated; it is said that at his death there were 10,000 Roman Catholics in the district where forty years before he had found a scant dozen. Loretto today is in the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
In 1899-1901, the steel industrialist
Charles M. Schwab funded the construction of a large stone church, which is the current basilica, at Prince Gallitzin's tomb. Schwab also provided funds for a bronze statue of Gallitzin.
[9]The nearby town of
Gallitzin, Pennsylvania,
[16] is named for western Pennsylvania's first English-speaking Roman Catholic priest. It is in this town that the
Pennsylvania Railroad would tunnel through the summit of the Allegheny Mountains. Eventually, the railroad would operate three tunnels through the ridge into Gallitzin. The Gallitzin Tunnel was closed as part of
Conrail's massive double-stack clearance project in the 1990s. In the mid-1960s, Pennsylvania christened a new nearby state park in honor of Prince Gallitzin, as he is called locally.
[17]In 1990, the Most Rev. Joseph V. Adamec, Bishop-Emeritus of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, established the Prince Gallitzin Cross Award, which is given annually to Catholics in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown who exemplify the evangelizing spirit of the Prince-Priest, Demetrius Gallitzin.
[18]On June 6, 2005, it was announced that Gallitzin had been named a
Servant of God by the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the first step on the path toward possible future
sainthood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_Augustine_Gallitzin