GALITZIN, ELIZABETH

Religious administrator; b. St. Petersburg, Russia, Feb. 22, 1797; d. St. Michael's, Louisiana, Dec. 8, 1843. Her father was Prince Alexsis Andrevitch; her mother, Countess Protasof, left the Russian Orthodox Church to embrace Catholicism. Four years later Elizabeth made her submission to Rome and entered the Society of the sacred heart at Metz, Lorraine. She received the habit in 1826, made her first vows in 1828, and made her final profession at Paris in 1832. Two years later she was appointed secretary general to the foundress, St. Madeleine Sophie barat. Mother Galitzin took an active part in the sixth general council of the order, held in Rome in 1839, and was elected assistant general. Sweeping changes in organization, designed to make the order resemble more closely the Society of Jesus, were approved for a three-year trial; and Mother Galitzin was sent (1840) as visitatrix to the American convents of the Sacred Heart to explain the new decrees and ensure their proper application. She reached New York early in September and traveled directly to Missouri to visit the convents in St. Louis, Florissant, and St. Charles, and then those in Louisiana. Although she was a conscientious and efficient visitor, her autocratic nature lacked sympathy and understanding. Before returning to France in 1842, she founded convents in New York City and McSherrystown, Pa., and approved the opening of a mission among the Potawatomi Indians at Sugar Creek, Kansas. When in March 1843 gregory xvi confirmed the original rules and constitutions of the society, Mother Galitzin became aware of the harm she had done in imposing too vehemently the changes she had championed and begged to be allowed to revisit America and restore the original organization as established there by St. Philippine duchesne. Embarking from France, she visited convents in New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada, and then went to Missouri and Louisiana. At St. Michael's, where she found yellow fever raging, she nursed the sick with heroic devotedness until she herself was fatally stricken with the disease.

Bibliography: Archives, R.S.C.J., St. Michael's, Louisiana, housed at Maryville College of the Sacred Heart, St. Louis, Missouri. l. callan, The Society of the Sacred Heart in North America (New York 1937). a. p. galitzyn, Vie d'une religieuse du Sacre-Coeur, 1795–1843 (Paris 1859). m. ward, Life of Bl. Madeleine Sophie Barat (Roehampton, England, 1900; rev. 1911).

[l. callan]