Background
Father Mazzuchelli was born in Milan, Italy on November 4, 1806. In 1828 he left Italy for the United States, spending a year in the Cincinnati area. There he was ordained a Dominican priest in 1830. After about five years serving the church in upper Michigan and northern Wisconsin, Mazzuchelli arrived in the Dubuque area. During his time, he faced a number of challenges, such as hostility from other Christian denominations.
Mazzuchelli arrived in the mid 1830s to what would later become Dubuque, Iowa. While there, he reorganized the parish and named it Saint Raphael's, which later became the Cathedral parish when the Dubuque Diocese was formed in 1837. He assisted Bishop Mathias Loras during the first few years after the founding of the Diocese and worked extensively in what would eventually become the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin. There he founded over 30 parishes and designed and built over 20 church buildings, along with a number of civic buildings. Three of those parishes were named after the three Archangels: Saint Raphael's in Dubuque, St. Michael's in Galena, Illinois, and Saint Gabriel's in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. In 1848, he founded St. Clara Academy ( now Dominican University of Illinois), a frontier school for young women. In 1847, he founded the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.
Many remembered Mazzuchelli as a kind and gentlemanly priest. He was able to break down the cultural barriers that existed at the time and appeal to many different ethnic groups. The Irish he ministered to called him "Father Matthew Kelly". He died on February 23, 1864 after contracting an illness from a sick parishioner.
Read more about this topic: Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli
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