The Randolph Society Foundation Board is pleased to announce that Father Gabriel Richard, a priest, educator and public servant, will be inducted into the 2025 class of honorees.
Gabriel Richard was born in France in October 1767. He was one of six children born into a family with ties to the nation’s powerful Catholic leaders. When he was just 11, Richard enrolled as a student at a local college, where he distinguished himself as a talented scholar. As he matured, he decided to enter the Sulpician seminary in Angers. There, he developed a life-long love for education. He was ordained as a priest in October 1790 at the age of 23.
After his ordination, Richard moved to the suburbs of Paris to teach at a seminary founded by Father DuBourg, who would later become the founder of Saint Louis University. Soon, though, political upheaval in France put Richard’s career and life in jeopardy. After the revolution, the new government seized church property and abolished laws that required citizens to tithe. They also compelled all priests to take an oath of fidelity to the state.
For more on Richard, please see this week’s print edition.