Gabriel Richard was a French Roman Catholic priest who ministered to the French Catholics in the parish of Sainte Anne de Détroit, as well as Protestants and Native Americans living in Southeast Michigan. He established schools, a library, and vocational training with weaving looms. After Detroit was nearly destroyed by a fire in 1805, he and others created a new layout for the city. His motto following the fire, Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus is inscribed on the Seal of the City of Detroit.
Gabriel Richard
State of Michigan Historical Marker summarizing the life of Father Gabriel Richard. Located outside Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit
University of Michigan (1855) by Jasper Francis Cropsey, University of Michigan Museum of Art
The tomb of Father Gabriel Richard resides now in the Basilica's Fr. Gabriel Richard Chapel
Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit
Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit (Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit) was founded July 26, 1701 by French colonists in New France, and is the second-oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic parish in the United States. The current Gothic Revival cathedral-styled church, built in 1886, is located at 1000 St. Anne Street in Detroit, Michigan, in the Hubbard-Richard neighborhood, near the Ambassador Bridge, and the Michigan Central Station. At one time it was the seat of a diocese that included French territory in Ontario, Canada south of the Detroit River.
Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit
The church nave