Religion
Michael Gallagher
1866–1937 · Catholic Bishop of Detroit (1918–1937)
Bishop of Detroit during the boom years, who founded Sacred Heart Seminary and was the protector of radio priest Charles Coughlin.
- Born
Auburn, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 70- Birth name
- Michael James Gallagher
- Also known as
- Bishop Michael Gallagher
- Detroit years
- 1918–1937
- Field
- Religion
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Michael Gallagher was born in Auburn, Michigan, in 1866, studied at Assumption College in Sandwich, Ontario, and in Ireland and Austria, and served in the Diocese of Grand Rapids before being named bishop of Detroit in July 1918. He arrived as the auto boom drew hundreds of thousands of Catholic immigrants and migrants to the city, and he spent the next two decades building parishes and schools to serve them. In 1919 he opened Sacred Heart Seminary in a temporary building to train local priests, a project that led to the Gothic seminary on Chicago Boulevard. In 1926 he sent a young priest, Charles Coughlin, to a new parish in Royal Oak, and when Coughlin's radio sermons turned into national political broadcasts, Gallagher stood by him; the pope's displeasure over Coughlin was rumored to have delayed Detroit's elevation to an archdiocese. The Fisher brothers of Fisher Body built him a vast Tudor-style residence in Palmer Woods, the largest home in the city. He died at Providence Hospital in Detroit in 1937.
Highlights
- Bishop of Detroit, 1918–1937
- Founded Sacred Heart Seminary in 1919
- Assigned Charles Coughlin to Royal Oak in 1926 and defended him
- Lived in the Fisher-funded bishop's mansion in Palmer Woods
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1919–1937
Sacred Heart Major Seminary
The seminary he founded in 1919; its Gothic Revival building on Chicago Boulevard followed in 1923–1924.
Lived here · 1920s–1937
Bishop Gallagher residence, Palmer Woods
Status being checked
The 39,000-square-foot Tudor mansion in Palmer Woods, paid for by the Fisher brothers and later home to Cardinals Mooney and Dearden; the largest house in Detroit.