Lucien Galtier was the first Roman Catholic priest who served in Minnesota. He was born in southern France in the town of Saint-Affrique, department of Aveyron. The year of his birth is somewhat uncertain, some sources claiming 1811 but his tomb at Prairie du Chien, WI, bearing the date December 17, 1812. In the 1830s, people were settling across the Minnesota River from Fort Snelling in the area of Mendota, Minnesota. Mathias Loras, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dubuque, Iowa learned of these settlers and journeyed up the Mississippi River to visit the settlers in the area. He wrote to his sister that "the Catholics of St. Peters amounted to one hundred and eighty five." The bishop saw a need to send a missionary to the area the next year. Galtier spoke little English when he arrived in 1840.

Fort Snelling is a former military fortification and National Historic Landmark in the U.S. state of Minnesota on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The military site was initially named Fort Saint Anthony, but it was renamed Fort Snelling once its construction was completed in 1825.