When we were
reading the chapter on “The Modern Age”, in
The Catholic Church through the Ages by
Fr. John Vidmar, OP, I happened also to be reading about leading feminist
voices in literature in another class. Seeing the example of Catholic women of
conviction and courage who achieved “one hundred years before their secular
sisters,”[1]
what those feminists were lobbying for, I decided then and there that one of my
final blogs would highlight this interesting irony. From various ethnic, social
and economic backgrounds, these women religious show that racial
discrimination, social challenges and financial hurdles can be overcome by the
message of Christ’s sacrificial love and the sanctifying power of His grace.
ST. ELIZABETH ANN SETON
Born in New
York City in 1774, and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1805, Elizabeth Ann
Bayley Seton is the first American-born person to be canonized a saint. Elizabeth
grew up in a socially prominent family, in the Episcopal Church which gave her
a devout religious formation.
In 1768, she married William Seton, a wealthy
co-founder of an import-export mercantile business. He contracted tuberculosis,
and during a trip to Italy in 1803 to seek his cure, Elizabeth encountered
vibrant Catholicism in their host family. After her husband died in Pisa at the
end of 1803, Elizabeth returned to New York, and was received into the Catholic
Church in 1805. Still caring for her five children, Elizabeth responded to the
invitation of Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore in 1808 to develop the Sisters
of Charity of St. Joseph’s, “an institution for female education and character
formation rooted in Christian values and the Catholic faith.”[2]
She and six other recruits formed the first community, opened the first Free
Catholic Girls’ School in America in 1810, as well as a tuition-funded Academy
with boarding students. These funds allowed her to operate the Free School. Elizabeth,
now known as Mother Elizabeth, and her Sisters of Charity “intertwined social
ministry with education”[3]
in opening infirmaries and orphanages in New York. The congregation grew
quickly and opened schools and orphanages in Cincinnati, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Mother Seton died in 1821, and was proclaimed a saint by Pope Paul VI in 1975 –
I remember watching the canonization on TV! St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is
considered a patron of Catholic schools.
 |
| (Source: The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton ) |
BLESSED MOTHER MARY
LANGE
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| (Source: Cradling Catholic |
Another
religious community founded in Baltimore, in 1828, was specially “dedicated to
the education of black children.”[4]
The Oblate Sisters of Providence owe their beginnings to Blessed Mother Mary
Lange who was born “around 1784 in Santiago de Cuba, … in a primarily French-speaking
community.”[5] In
the early 1800’s, Elizabeth Lange moved to Baltimore and settled in with French-speaking
Catholics from Haiti. Well-educated, pious, and courageous, Elizabeth was “a
strong, independent thinker and doer.”[6]
Seeing the children of her fellow immigrants neglected and in need of
education, she opened a free school for them and for African-American children.
With a friend, she managed the school for ten years. Fr. Joubert encouraged her
to found a religious congregation for the education of African-American girls.
Delighted with this idea, which corresponded with a deep desire of her heart,
Elizabeth and three other women made profession on July 2, 1829; she took the
name of Mother Mary, and was the first superior general of the new congregation
of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. In addition to educating African-American
children, including freed slaves, the Oblate Sisters cared for orphans and
nursed those who were sick during an outbreak of cholera. Mother Mary Lange continued
giving of “herself and her material possessions until she was empty of
all but Jesus.”[7] She died
on February 3, 1882. Her Oblate Sisters still run several schools today.
ST. FRANCES XAVIER
CABRINI
Francesca
Cabrini was the youngest of thirteen children, born in 1850 in Italy where she was
educated and received her teaching license with high honors. Weakened by
smallpox in 1872, she was not accepted when she applied to enter the Daughters of
the Sacred Heart. A priest convinced her to work at an orphanage, take the religious
habit, and make
vows in 1877; the Bishop guided her to found the religious
institute of Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1880. By 1887, they had
already opened seven free schools in northern Italy. Mother Cabrini ardently
desired to be a missionary in China, but Pope Leo XIII turned her to the west
instead of the east. In 1889, she landed in New York with six Sisters. They
opened orphanages and schools among the Italian immigrants, taught adult
catechism classes, and founded the Columbus Hospital. Mother Cabrini became a
naturalized American citizen in 1910, and continued founding schools,
orphanages and hospitals in the U.S., South America, and Europe. In spite of
her frail health, she “crossed the sea thirty times, and within 35 years
established 67 houses with more than 1,500 daughters.”[8]
She died of malaria in 1917, and was canonized by Pope Pius XII who praised her
in these words: “…knowing the will of God in her regard, she permitted nothing
to impede her from accomplishing what seemed beyond the strength of a woman.”[9]
St. Frances Cabrini’s Missionary Sisters still operate schools, a university, and
care for the elderly and immigrants.[10]
 |
| (Source: www.mothercabrini.org ) |
MOTHER ALPHONSA, SERVANT
OF GOD (ROSE HAWTHORNE)
Youngest daughter
of the renowned author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rose was born in Massachusetts in
1851, a descendant of the original colonists of Plymouth Rock.[11]
Rose traveled as a child to England, Portugal, France, and Italy with her
father who was a U.S. Consul. At nine years of age, she returned to Concord,
MA, and in 1871 married George Lathrop. They settled in New York City, but
moved to Boston where Mr. Lathrop got a job with the Atlantic Monthly. Inheriting the literary talent of her father, Rose
wrote and published poetry and short stories in several well-known journals and
magazines. She and George converted to the Catholic Church in 1891. George’s
intemperance, however, led to their separation. When Rose heard from a priest
about a woman sent to a sanitarium to die of cancer, she decided to dedicate
her life to caring for poor victims of cancer. She received training in the New
York City Cancer Hospital, and started taking care of neglected cancer victims,
relying on financial help from people who read her newspaper articles about her
work, and from publishing her Memories of
Hawthorne (1897).[12]
After her husband died, a Dominican priest received Rose and her friend into
the Dominican Tertiaries. She took the name of Sister Mary Alphonsa, made vows
in 1900, and “established the Dominican Congregation of St. Rose of Lima, incorporated
as the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer.”[13]
The cancer home established in Hawthorne, NY was funded in part by a magazine, Christ’s Poor. “She
placed herself ‘at the foot of the cross alongside our Blessed Mother,’ and
thus became a servant of those afflicted with incurable cancer. She died
July 9, 1926 at Rosary Hill Home, Hawthorne, NY.”[14] The
Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne still care for cancer patients, free of charge,
in homes in New York, Philadelphia (PA), Atlanta (GA).
 |
| (Source: www.hawthorne-dominicans.org ) |
ST. KATHARINE DREXEL
Katharine Drexel,
who became the second American-born saint, was born into a wealthy family in
Philadelphia in 1858. When the 3rd Plenary Council of Baltimore
(1884) encouraged missionary work among the Native and African Americans, the
Drexel family was approached for financial assistance. When Katharine went to
Rome and asked the Pope to which religious order that served Native and African
Americans she could leave her inherited fortune, Pope Leo XIII simply told her
that she should be that missionary!
Enthralled by the idea, she entered and was formed at the Sisters of Mercy in
Pittsburgh in 1889, and in 1891, with a few companions, she founded the Sisters
of the Blessed
Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. A year later, there
were already 21 Sisters. “By 1894 young SBS were in St.
Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe; in St. Francis de Sales School in Virginia
in 1899; and in 1902 in St. Michael Indian School on the Navajo Reservation in
Arizona. Gradually other boarding schools sprang up on reservations.”[15] Mother Katharine answered as many
requests as she could, had convents and schools built, and sent the Sisters to
staff them. She also founded the only African-American Catholic university,
Xavier University, in New Orleans in 1915.[16]
In spite of a heart attack in 1935, Mother Katharine continued her missionary
foundations and work in the Northeast, Midwest, and Deep South. In old age,
when she could no longer work and travel, she persevered in her prayers for the
missions among the minorities until her death in 1955, at the age of 96. She
could thank God for giving her the means and initiative to found 63 schools, staffed
with over 500 Sisters. St. Katharine Drexel was canonized in 2000. At this time,
in the 21st century, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament have 48
locations in 12 states, as well as in Haiti and Jamaica.[17]
 |
| (Source: www.katharinedrexel.org ) |
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft
clamored in England for political and social rights for women in a revolutionary
world; meanwhile, St. Elizabeth Seton and Blessed Mary Lange were providing
quality “female education and character formation rooted in Christian values
and the Catholic faith” in America for blacks and whites. In 1851, Harriet
Taylor wrote an essay in England insisting on equal opportunities in the
professional world, equal salaries, and voting rights for women; at the same
time, St. Frances Cabrini and St. Katharine Drexel were harnessing funds from
professional sources to open schools, orphanages and universities for girls and
women in North and South America, because they “permitted nothing to impede
[them] from accomplishing what seemed beyond the strength of a woman.” In 1929,
the modern author Virginia Woolf pressed for equality in universities and the
literary field for women in England; on the other side of the Atlantic, Rose
Hawthorne, also known as Mother Alphonsa, boldly published poetry, books and news
articles to obtain funds for her charitable works among the cancerous. Were the
feminists unable to achieve what these saintly women accomplished? Or did they
simply lack their religious sisters’ altruistic outlook based on the love of God
and neighbor? One thing is certain: these great religious women of America had
the faith that not only moves mountains, but also removes racial, social, and financial obstacles in order to generously
serve God’s children.
[1] John Vidmar, The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History, 2nd ed. (New York: Paulist Press, 2014), 313.
[3] Idem.
[5] Oblate Sisters of Providence, “Founders,”
http://oblatesisters.com/
[6] Idem.
[7] Idem.
[9] Pope Pius XII, quoted in Melville, “Cabrini,”
839.
[10] Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus, “What We Do,” https://www.mothercabrini.org/
[11] Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, “Rose
Hawthorne Biography,” http://www.hawthorne-dominicans.org/biography.html.
[13] Idem.
[14] Dominican Sisters, “Biography,” http://www.hawthorne-dominicans.org/biography.html.
[15] Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, “Katharine
Drexel: Founding of the SBS,” https://www.katharinedrexel.org/st_katharine_drexel_overview/founding-of-the-sisters-of-the-blessed-sacrament/
[16] K. Burton,
"Drexel, Katharine Marie, St.," in New Catholic Encyclopedia,
2nd ed., vol. 4 (Detroit: Gale, 2003), 906.
[17] Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, “Where
We Are and What We Do,” https://www.katharinedrexel.org/sisters-of-the-blessed-sacrament/where-we-are-and-what-we-do/
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