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History of Parish of St. Augustine, St. Augustine, Pa. |
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History of
St. Augustine's Parish
St. Augustine, Penna.
FIRST EPOCH.
The Introduction of Catholicity Into This Section by Captain Michael McGuire and His Cousin Michael McGuire - Visits of Catholic Priests - The Advent of Father Gallitzin, "Prince-Priest and Apostle of the Alleghenies" - Sketch of Father Gallitzin.
Although Father Gallitzin is styled "Prince-Priest and Apostle of the Alleghenies," and founder of St. Michael's Parish, Loretto, and also of the town of Loretto, it was Captain Michael McGuire, a brave soldier in the Maryland contingent in Washington's army during the Revolutionary War, and possibly, a commander in Colonel Stephen Moylan's Maryland Riflemen, who notwithstanding that it was a violation of the Puritanical laws of the colony of Massachusetts for Catholics to enter the province, went to the aid of Colonel Prescott, on that eventful seventeenth day of June, 1775, arriving, after a forced march through Pennsylvania and New York, on the morning of that day, when they were assigned to a position behind the rail fence which ran from the redoubt on Breed's (not Bunker) Hill down to the Mystic River, and did terrible execution on the ranks of the advancing British as did those within the redoubt until after the second repulse of the redcoats the ammunition of the patriots gave out and they were forced to retreat, and his nephew, Michael McGuire, came in 1787, according to a history of Cumberland County, and having built cabins to house their families, moved from Maryland the following year to a sheltered location to the eastward of the present town of Loretto.
A priceless relic of the Revolutionary War, and also of the War of 1812, is the sword worn by Captain Michael
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