Alphonse Gallegos,
OAR (February 20, 1931 – October 6, 1991), was an American
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
prelate who served as
Auxiliary Bishop of Sacramento from 1981 until his death in 1991. He was nicknamed the "Bishop of the Barrios."
His cause for canonization was opened in 2006 and on 8 July 2016,
Pope Francis
Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
named him
Venerable
''The Venerable'' often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christianity, Christian churches. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom.
Catholic
In the Catholic Churc ...
in recognition of his
heroic virtue
Heroic virtue is the translation of a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs. The phrase is used by the Roman Catholic Church.
The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman a ...
.
Early life
Gallegos was born in
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...
, where his father was a
carpenter
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...
, and his mother a
homemaker
Homemaking is mainly an American English, American and Canadian English, Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational ...
caring for their 11 children. He had a twin brother, Eloy,
grew up in
Watts
Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power.
Watts may also refer to:
People
*Watts (surname), a list of people with the surname Watts
Fictional characters
*Albie Watts, a fictional character in the British soap opera ''EastEnders''
*Angie ...
, attended
Manual Arts High School
Manual Arts High School is a secondary public school in Los Angeles, California, United States.
History
Manual Arts High School was founded in 1910 in the middle of bean fields, one-half mile from the nearest bus stop. It was the third high sc ...
and received
confirmation
In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...
from then auxiliary bishop
Timothy Manning
Timothy Manning (Irish: ''Tadhg Ó Mongáin'') (November 15, 1909 – June 23, 1989) was an Irish Catholics, Irish Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1970 to 1985. He was elev ...
.
The family attended San Miguel parish, which was run by the
Order of Augustinian Recollects
The Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR) is a mendicant Catholic religious order of friars and nuns. It is a reformist offshoot from the Augustinians, Augustinian hermit friars and follows the same Rule of St. Augustine.
They have also been kno ...
.
Gallegos attended
Rockhurst University
Rockhurst University is a private Jesuit university in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 as Rockhurst College, Rockhurst University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It enrolled 2,980 students in 2019.
History
In 1909, Fr. ...
in Kansas City, graduated from
St. Thomas Aquinas College
St. Thomas Aquinas College (STAC) is a private college in Sparkill, New York. The college is named after the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. It was founded by the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, whose headquarters are in th ...
in Sparkill, New York,
St. John's University in New York and
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...
in Los Angeles.
He entered the Order of Augustinian Recollects as a novice in 1950.
While a seminarian at the Tagaste Monastery in
Suffern, New York
Suffern is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village that was incorporated in 1796 in the town of Ramapo, New York, Ramapo in Rockland County, New York. Located adjacent to the town of Mahwah, New Jersey, Suffern is located 31 miles ...
, his superiors learned that Gallegos was born with a severe
myopic condition.
Although he had eye surgery prior to entering the
seminary
A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...
, his vision remained poor. Gallegos was
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...
a Roman Catholic
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
for the Augustinian Recollects on May 24, 1958.
He spent eight years at Tagaste serving as chaplain at neighboring hospitals and religious communities and served in various capacities in his order's houses of formation. In 1972 he became pastor of San Miguel in Watts, and in 1978 of Cristo Rey in Glendale in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles (, ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the southern coastal portion of the U.S. state of California. The archdiocese's cathedra is in Los Angeles, and the arc ...
. He was an advisor to Los Angeles Cardinal Timothy Manning on Hispanic affairs and helped set up a training program for the archdiocese's Hispanic permanent diaconate.
[Boll, John E. "Bishop Alphonse Napoleon Gallegos, OAR", Sacramento Diocesan Archives]
/ref>
He was transferred to the Diocese of Sacramento where Gallegos served from 1979 to 1981 as the first director of the Division of Hispanic Affairs of the California Catholic Conference.
Auxiliary bishop
On August 24, 1981, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
appointed Gallegos auxiliary bishop
An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions.
...
of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento
The Diocese of Sacramento () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archd ...
, in Sacramento, California
Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...
[Borsellino, Tonia. "Why this bishop from the US is now one step closer to being a saint," ''Catholic News Agency'', July 21, 2016]
/ref> as the titular bishop of Sasabe.[ He was consecrated bishop on November 4, 1981, by Bishop Francis Quinn. In 1983, Bishop Quinn appointed Gallegos pastor of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In his ministry, both as a priest and later as bishop, Gallegos dressed in a 99-cent sombrero and T-shirt to minister at night to gang members, lowriders, and at-risk youth in impoverished areas of Los Angeles and Sacramento.][Nelson, Mike. "Bishop Gallegos Venerable and beloved by many," ''Angelus News'', Archdiocese of Los Angeles, July 6, 2017]
/ref>
Death
On October 6, 1991, Gallegos died when he was struck by a driver while returning to Sacramento from Gridley, California
Gridley is a city in Butte County, California, United States, south of Chico, California, and north of Sacramento, California. The population as of April 1, 2020, is 7,421. California State Route 99 runs through Gridley and Interstate 5 in Cal ...
. Gallegos and his driver had stopped to help a stranded motorist.[ Other accounts say that their car suddenly lost power and stopped in the left lane. As the men began to push the car off the road and onto the median, another car slammed into their vehicle, throwing the bishop some 50 feet to the right shoulder. Gallegos died instantly. He was considered an unofficial chaplain to lowriders and ]migrant workers
A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant workers ...
. In honor of the “Bishop of the Barrio,” about 300 lowrider cars formed part of his funeral procession from the parish of St. Rose where he lived to the city's Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.[O’Neel, Brian. "California's Bishop Alphonse Gallegos Declared Venerable", ''National Catholic Register'', July 8, 2016]
/ref>
Veneration
In 2005, after eleven months of scrutiny
Scrutiny (French: ''scrutin''; Late Latin: ''scrutinium''; from ''scrutari'', meaning "those who search through piles of rubbish in the hope of finding something of value" and originally from the Latin "scruta," meaning "broken things, rags, or ...
, the cause for Gallegos' beatification
Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...
was opened by Bishop William Weigand. He was declared a Servant of God
Servant of God () is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint.
Terminology
The expression ''Servant of God'' appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...
on June 5, 2006.
On March 24, 2010, Gallegos's body was exhumed and transferred to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament as part of his cause
Causality is an influence by which one event, process, state, or object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cause is at least partly responsible for the effect, ...
towards sainthood
In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...
. On March 25, 2010, his remains were transferred to the parish he resided in as an auxiliary bishop. This parish is the Sanctuary
A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...
of the National Shrine
A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...
of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe (), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (), is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with four Marian apparitions to Juan Diego and one to his uncle, Juan Bernardino reported in December 1531, when t ...
also known as Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Sacramento.
On July 8, 2016, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Servant of God Alphonse Gallegos and naming him Venerable.[Pope Francis, "Decree on the virtues of the Venerable Bishop Alphonse Gallegos, OAR," July 8, 2016, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints]
Legacy
I would like to be remembered as having helped the young people how to appreciate who they are and to value the life God has given them. I would also like to be remembered as having appreciated people and all that they have to offer in making the world a better place to live in.
Because he was a member of the Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic Church, Catholic Fraternal and service organizations, fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney, Blessed Michael J. McGivney. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. ...
and supporter of the unborn, Bishop Gallegos Assembly 2336 and Bishop Gallegos Maternity Home are named for him.
The city of Sacramento named a section of Eleventh St. between K and L Streets the Gallegos Square in his memory. In 1997, a statue of Bishop Gallegos was unveiled in Gallegos Square next to the cathedral.[
]
References
External links
Hagiography Circle
Saints SQPN
Order of Augustinian Recollects, Bishop Alphonse Gallegos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallegos, Alphonse
1931 births
1991 deaths
20th-century venerated Christians
Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento
20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States
Augustinian friars
Rockhurst University alumni
St. John's University (New York City) alumni
Loyola Marymount University alumni
People from Albuquerque, New Mexico
Clergy from Sacramento, California
Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis
Pedestrian road incident deaths
Road incident deaths in California
Catholics from California
Catholics from New Mexico
American venerated Catholics