Swedish American Genealogist Volume 14 Number 4 Article 2 12-1-1994 Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Paul, MN Members, 1853-1860 James E. Erickson Laura J. Erickson Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag Part of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Erickson, James E. and Erickson, Laura J. (1994) "Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Paul, MN Members, 1853-1860," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 14 : No. 4 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol14/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Paul, MN Members, 1853-1860 James E. Erickson and Laura J. Erickson* Rev. Lucian Galtier, a Catholic priest and missionary bom in France in 1811, not only built the first church in St. Paul, :MN but also gave the city its name. In his own words: " ... [I]n 1841, in the month of October, logs were pre- pared and a church erected, so poor that it would well remind one of the stable at Bethlehem. It was destined, however, to be the nucleus of a great city. On the 1st day of November, in the same year, I blessed the new basilica, and dedicated it to 'Saint Paul, the apostle of nations.' I expressed a wish, at the same time, that the settlement would be known by the same name, and my desire was obtained." 1 During the next two decades, as immigrants from within the United States and Europe swelled the population of this fledgling city, additional churches were built within earshot of Galtier's humble chapel of St.