Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne are a Roman Catholic congregation of Religious Sisters, who are a part of the Third Order of St. Dominic. They specialize in caring for those suffering from terminal cancer and have no financial resources.

History

The Congregation was founded on December 8, 1900, by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, a daughter of the famed novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. Early in life, Rose Hawthorne married George Parsons Lathrop, both of whom converted to Roman Catholicism in 1891. Rose had seemingly married well as a young woman, and they moved from her native Massachusetts to New York City after their marriage. Unfortunately her husband soon turned out to be unreliable and unfaithful. Eventually she was driven to seek a divorce in 1895, a highly shameful step for a woman of her social standing in that period.

Finding herself alone and with few financial resources, she began to seek some meaning to her life. In this journey, she found her answer in her Catholic faith. By circumstance she started to care for an elderly neighbor who wad dying of cancer. At the time, this disease was believed by many to be highly contagious, so there was a deep fear of contact with those suffering from this affliction. Lathrop soon found a special vocation to this work.

In the fall of 1896, after having taken a three-month nursing course at New York's Cancer Hospital, Lathrop moved into a three-room cold-water flat on New York City's impoverished Lower East Side and began to nurse the poor with incurable cancer. In March 1898 Alice Huber, having responded to an article Lathrop had written about her work, joined her in this service. As others came to join them, Lathrop was inspired to found a religious congregation by The New Colossus, a poem penned by her close friend Emma Lazarus.^[1]

By chance, one of the many patients who came to Lathrop for care, when dying of cancer, was her own husband, George Lathrop. Rose nursed him till his death in 1898.

A new congregation

The community became established as a congregation of Religious Sisters in 1900 and were given the Dominican habit. They termed themselves "the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer", and their purpose was to provide for the well-being of incurably ill and destitute cancer patients. At that time, Lathrop was elected as Prioress of the community, becoming known as Mother Mary Alphonsa.

Their first home was founded in that same neighborhood of Manhattan. It was named St. Rose Home for Incurable Cancer. The Sisters took only the most destitute, and provided them with all the care they needed, doing so without any form of compensation. Until the 21st century, they refused to accept government funds from either Social Security or Medicare. Mother Alphonsa wanted a better environment for her charges than the bleak dirty streets of that part of Manhattan. She then established a second nursing home, Rosary Hill, in a small hamlet of Westchester County, some twenty miles north of New York City. The community came to be called Hawthorne, New York, in her honor.

Present situation

While greatly reduced in numbers, like most other religious communities in the late 20th century, the Sisters continue to serve at Rosary Hill and at homes in Philadelphia, Atlanta and a new overseas mission in Kenya.

References

1. ^ "Exhibit highlights connection between Jewish poet, Catholic nun". The Tidings. Catholic News Service (Archdiocese of Los Angeles): p. 16. 17 September 2010. http://www.the-tidings.com/2010/091710/exhibit.htm. Retrieved 20 September 2010. 

External links

• Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne

This article on the Catholic Church, Catholic institutions, and wider society is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Congregations of Dominican Sisters Religious organizations established in 1900 Christian religious orders established in the 20th century Roman Catholic society stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР Weasdale Beck Bayesian inference in phylogeny Look at other dictionaries: Hawthorne, New York — Infobox Settlement official name = Hawthorne, New York settlement type = CDP nickname = motto = imagesize = image caption = image |pushpin pushpin label position = pushpin map caption =Location within the state of New York pushpin mapsize =… …   Wikipedia Sisters of Life — is a female Roman Catholic religious order, following the Augustinian rule, that was founded in 1991 by John Cardinal O Connor, the late Archbishop of New York, after much prayer and a visit to the remains of the Dachau concentration camp. It is… …   Wikipedia Sophia Hawthorne — Infobox Person name = Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne image size = 200px caption = etching by Stephen Alonzo Schoff birth date = September 21, 1809 birth place = Salem, Massachusetts death date = February 26, 1871 death place = London, England… …   Wikipedia Rose Hawthorne Lathrop — (May 20, 1851 – July 9, 1926) was an American Roman Catholic religious sister and social worker. Biography Born in Lenox, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife Sophia Peabody, she was educated in London, Paris, Rome and Florence. She …   Wikipedia Nathaniel Hawthorne — Retrato realizado en la década de 1860. Nacimiento 4 de julio de 1804 Salem …   Wikipedia Español List of charitable organizations in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York — The Archdiocese of New York is home to over 100 charitable organizations, run by many different religious orders, as well as by Catholic Charities of New York. The following list is being added to and is incomplete:Homes for Children* Astor Home… …   Wikipedia Dominikanerin — So wie bei den Franziskanerinnen gibt es auch verschiedene katholische Schwesterngemeinschaften, welche sich an das Vorbild des heiligen Dominikus halten. Sie nennen sich Dominikanerinnen. Noch bevor der erste Orden der Dominikaner… …   Deutsch Wikipedia Dominikanerinnen — Die Dominikanerinnen sind eine römisch katholische Ordensgemeinschaft, welche mit einer Gründung von Dominikus im Jahre 1205 begann. Als Erster Orden werden die Dominikaner bezeichnet, als Zweiter Orden werden die kontemplativen Dominikanerinnen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia Roman Catholic religious order — Religious orders ( Religious Institutes , cf. canons 573 746) are the major form of consecrated life in the Roman Catholic Church. They are organisations of laity and/or clergy who live a common life following a religious rule under the… …   Wikipedia Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York — Archdiocese of New York Archidioecesis Neo Eboracensis The coat of arms of the Archdiocese of New York …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”